Grace's Life Today
Lacey (Willowmere’s Lady Stetson) was renamed Grace in the first few weeks after she came here. The new name suited her, and it signaled the start of a new life with Heather. Grace has slept in a bed with humans every night since she came to live with Heather. When Grace wakes up, she showers Heather with Kisses and love rubs, rubbing her head from side to side all over you. Pushing very hard!!. When you get up, and after she has had her breakfast, she heads right back into bed and will make a nest on your pillow, or in the nearest sleepwear, and sleeps quietly until she has to go potty. Then she will come to you, and stand on her hind feet and look at you soulfully with her arms (front paws) on you, and sometimes will yelp if you don’t get the message that “I have to go??!!!”
When Grace came here she weighed just over 11 lbs. Her AKC Height Card is 15 1/2 inches. She now weighs just under or over 14 lbs (depending on the day) and is not fat at that weight, although if you were going to show her I suppose she looks best at about 13 1/2 lbs. She is very beautiful. A magnificent specimen! Donna Emmett saw her and said “Marnie!!!” before she knew anything about Grace!! Grace has excellent conditioning as she gets a chance to run almost every day. She has great powerful muscles in her hind legs, and she uses them all the time!! She is spectacular!!
A couple of months after Grace came to Heather, Grace became very ill. She stopped eating, couldn't keep anything down, had a fever and diarrhea. It wasn't obvious what was wrong with her when she was brought to the vet, and they put her on an IV and kept her for a couple of days. In the process they discovered that Grace was badly infected with Whip Worm, which had come with her from Texas. She had been feeling its effects for some time as she was full of them. Whip worm is not found in the Northwest, and vets only looked for this when they found out she had come from Texas, where Whip Worm is a parasite that Vets will look for. Once they found the problem and it was treated, Grace began to feel much better, and put on so much weight that she had well developed udders in no time?! So much weight, that we had to put her on a restricted diet, and now keep her at 14 lbs versus the 11 lbs. she was.
After almost a year, and several reoccurrences of whipworm, and finally a move, we were able to get it under control, and both Grace and our other IG, (Al) are now whip worm free.
When Grace came to us she was so fearful, it was very sad! She was afraid of everything. She was a submissive pee'r. We were told we would likely never get Grace housetrained. Although it took almost 18 months, one bed, several sheets, blankets, pillows and comforters, and many tears; Grace has overcome the housetraining issue and is now pretty much housetrained!! Except on Really Rainy days in Seattle, when she occasionally slips down into the basement and does her business, on the concrete floor, near a floor drain. This makes me think that she might have been kenneled at one point, but who knows.
We're happy to tell everyone that Grace has a voice, which we never knew she had. We never heard a sound from her for the first 6 months. She was totally silent. She uses her bark quite often, most frequently at the mailman who she seems to not like much, and often at animals or people who pass by on the street in front of the house. She will stand on the furniture and bark out at them through the window, which of course makes them go away. We don’t discourage her from expressing herself unless she is relentless or obsessive about barking. It’s good that she is trying to say something. She was so silent for so long. She is occasionally known to bark during the night if she hears a distant dog. She thinks she is a good watchdog . We know she is also a good mother and protector of Al my 4 yr. old male, and has come to his aid several times in the off leash area or in the park when we walk. Leave him alone!!!!!
Grace also talks with her feet. We call her the “Foot talker”. If she can’t get the message through with her voice, she will use her feet to talk to you, and throw her head back and forth at the same time. If she wants out, she will scratch at the door to get you to open it. If she is hungry, she will stand on her hind feet and scratch and point at the fridge or the freezer door so you know where to get her dinner from. If she is at the front door after a car ride she will help you open the door by putting her foot on the door and scratching it to tell you that this is the way in the house. She’ll use her feet to pry open the door of whatever room you are in to tell you she loves you. Most often she does this while you are in the bathroom, but she’ll come in the office or into Heather’s studio to visit you.
Grace has a tail!! We never saw her tail for the first 3 months Heather had her. Grace has made up for tail wags missed, because she really uses her tail now. She has very well developed muscles at the base of her tail. We hope her tail becomes a gaye tail, although most of the time it is just 2/3 of a gaye tail.
Grace has lost both her upper and lower incisors because of the periodontal disease she had when she came here. She now looks like a 5 year old girl when she smiles. Which she does very often. The rest of her teeth are healthy, and she cleans them regularly on raw chicken backs and unprocessed beef femurs that are sawn into 2 inch long pieces with the marrow exposed on both ends so that she can chew and suck and lick the bone until it looks like a bone after several years of baking in the desert. It’s a happy end to the day if she gets a bone to chew on.
Grace learned to walk on a leash, and quickly solved the mystery of climbing stairs.
Grace never sees a crate now unless she is doing agility, which she loves to do. Although she isn't a speedball at it yet, she does great! The only time she is in a crate is when she is waiting to run an agility course, and instead of having to drag her out of the crate which was the way she used to be, now the crate can barely contain her as she is jumping around inside it so much wanting to get out and crying about it, that the crate moves around the floor on Gracie power! The same story applies if she is left in the van while she waits her turn to do agility. She is often up on the dash with her front feet barking to let it be her turn. She can be very demanding, which we love to see, and never discourage.
Find Out What Grace Likes to Do
