BMod,
Things are just going along "normally" these days, mostly.
Sandy is now 4 months old and has grown a lot. She is settling down with less chewing and is also settling into habits that will probably be with her from now on. Her life is really pretty simple and she seems very happy. In the morning she grabs some sun and meets us on the porch, then the keep-away game begins and she is very determined to run off with anything she finds near where I'm working. It's funny and interesting, but causes some trouble. She has decided to pull the hub caps off my quad and lose them around the place too. Recently she started pooping in one room of the new house we're building, every day. So we are discouraging her from coming in. And she knows all the entrances. Between that and stealing parts or tools or flashlights, or whatever, I am keeping her out during the day. She has a look in her eye when the game is on and she wants me to chase her.
She has not been in the old house, tied up or fenced in for months now and is quite happy staying round close, but she might have been wandering a bit at night. A few days ago the wild coyotes were very close and Liye heard some strange sounds late at night. She was concerned and went out to see what was up. Sandy wasn't seen until morning when she came to the front porch as usual. But she showed up with a limp in her rear end, some small puncture wounds on her head and two teeth missing! It seems she had an encounter with the wild ones. So now she is sticking very close to her den at night. During the day she is happy to go for walks out into the BLM land without a leash. She just wants to go on an adventure with her pack. At those times it seems she is right at home there. She doesn't "heel" as a domestic dog might, but instead is a partner out exploring. It seems she is a team member.
She has grown so much that she had to excavate a lot of dirt out of the den and there are big piles next to the entrance.
We are finding roadkill rabbits on a regular schedule and she gets about 2 every 3 days or so. One period went on for about five days with no rabbits and she was eating some dry dog food. I know she was hungry and her mood suffered a bit, but she seems to endure hunger without much fanfare. Must be part of her wildness and ability to endure and survive. She also was able to catch a large lizard the other day as I watched.
One night out late with her she was exceptionally snappy. Trying to run up and nip at me in a way that wasn't really friendly, but not real dangerous. I didn't trust her that night and kept shooing her off, but she was right back. There was also a stranger visiting us that night and we were sitting out much later than usual. I could not get her to settle down and finally got out the hose and nozzle. Every time she came close I blasted her. She finally stayed away and I though it might be a turning point in her development, but the next day and from then on she has been exceptionally nice. It was just a particular event, I guess. Or she got a message from the alpha male, or something. The night is the time for her to patrol silently around and she can be right there or invisible, trot silently by and disappear into the brush. Always with a radius from me wherever I happen to be. Always moving. Never a sound. I'm careful not to shine a light in her face as my LED flashlights are very intense. So I wait and look in the moonlight. There she is, then gone. The night dog. I sit inside near the door at night to read or eat and she comes by the glass door to check in. While there she might grab a bug off the glass before moving on. We don't let her in and she doesn't seem to want in, but she loves for me to come out with a treat and scratch her tummy. I'll step out with Bei Bei to give her a run and check the stars. Out of nowhere a coyote shows up and wants some attention.
She is much stronger and more coordinated these days and doesn't seem to know her own strength. What was once gentle wolf kisses are now more serious, even though she is still being gentle. She also hurts Bei Bei more often during play and is so much larger that poor Bei Bei is taking a beating.
I'm still looking for a permanent residence for her and have a couple more leads. But it's not settled yet and I haven't raised it to emergency status.
Quite a few more people have met her recently. It seems no one is very concerned and one of our neighbors father used to have one himself. Apparently, he had her for several years and then sold her to the movie industry to be in movies. They also used her for sound affects. More coyote stories keep coming out of the woodwork. When Sandy meets someone new these days she is a bit standoffish at first, but soon is right there looking for attention and pulling on their shirt or climbing up on them.
The only real sound she makes is a guttural growling while playing that can have different tones and one for addressing threats. Never a bark and no traditional coyote yipping. She is very quiet.
With me she curls around and flops down in almost a summersalt move that ends with her lying on her back and looking at me with those beautiful yellow eyes. We're pals. But if she has a rabbit, and especially if she is hungry, it's best to leave her alone as she can be very protective of her food. She loves rabbits but doesn't care for squirrels. I would never have imagined us looking for roadkill all the time and putting up with so much gore around the place. Rabbit parts and blood and fur show up a lot around here.
As I mentioned before she and the deer are very comfortable with each other. They will stand just a few feet apart and even turn their backs on one another.
She and our cat cannot find the game, so the cat stays in most of the time, otherwise there is a lot of growling and scratching and hiding.
She likes water, but we haven't taken her to a lake yet. She has a large rectangular plastic tub for drinking. We use such a big one because she likes to walk right in and splash around when she gets a drink. If it's hot she will even sit down in there. Very funny to see, then she gets a quick drink and heads off on the next adventure.
I don't know how much bigger she will get, but she must be the best fed wild dog ever. We'll see.
