April 25, 2019

White Dog watched us from the couch. Steve and I were doing a final triage on Pearl's dew claw; damaged last week. She lost the nail but antibiotic spray and wrapping had left the injury fully healed and issue-free.

A bonus in the week of tending has been a softening of Pearl's shyness toward me. I have all these days held her and examined the foot then Steve has applied the topical and wrapped the leg. For the first time since Pearl arrived she did not kicked and pushed to struggle out of my arms.

I decided to press my luck a bit when I felt a clumpy mat just under her collar. I cradled Pearl as Steve gently drew the soft brush through her thick furs. My heart sang when she looked me in the eye and relaxed her body. She sat without tenseness as Steve groomed two full brushes of old furs from her and I told her how good it felt to hold her.

Then she hopped down. But she did not flee the scene. Instead she calmly walked over to the window chairs and settled comfortably.

I thanked her for her cooperation then shared the news with the entire White Dog Army that Pearl no longer needed bandaging as she was recovered.

Pearl beamed.