Homecoming I

Dory came home today! Her quarantine is over. She is highly confused.
I arrived to pick her up at about 3:40 this afternoon because ILC (International Lady's Club) ran long. We went to Omura to see the remains of a castle and an Iris garden. It was really very beautiful. It was also supposed to be over about an hour before it was, so I kind of had to book it over to get the girl because the kennel closes at 4:00.
Dory got a bath before she came home with some nice shampoo for dogs with dry skin. I cleaned her kennel one more time, and she was delighted to get a car ride.
The first place I showed her when we got to our neighborhood was the park. This was reduce the chances of any accidents in the house. It served that purpose very well, though she was too nervous to really explore and was quite happy when we turned back to the car. Dory doesn't always handle change so well, and it took her a month to be willing to go out of sight of the kennel, so I wasn't too surprised about this.
Back at the house, Dory got busy smelling everything. I had prepared by closing off the rooms I didn't want her investigating alone. She still hasn't seen the tatami room, but I gave her a tour of the rest of the house. Her reaction to her crate looked like the dog version of "I remember this." She got really excited about our bed, though. That was when the tail started really wagging.
Dory also liked the patios. She doesn't really want to be outside alone, but she did a good bit of sniffing on the second floor one before realizing I had gone inside. So we may spend a bit more time out there together sometime if it isn't too hot. She handles the heat worse than I do, surprisingly enough. There will have to be A/C for us both soon.
Back downstairs, we had our first game of monkeyball in three months. Monkeyball is the first toy I got Dory. It's a brown tennisball that used to have four legs and a monkey head. Now it just has three legs, but it's still a fun toy. Dory doesn't like playing outside, though, and the kennel was too small for fetch, so we hadn't played in awhile. She got so excited about the game that she tried to run laps (another typical Dory expression of joy). However, Dory doesn't deal with hard floors well. She's used to carpet. So she didn't want to run on the hard wood the way she would have to for laps, and instead she just ran tiny little circles on the one rug in the house. Poor baby. I found it hysterical.
She's spent the rest of the evening flopped out on the rug. We just had a vistor (Japanese person who I couldn't understand so she left quickly), and Dory's already barking at people, so I guess that's her way of taking over. Now she's on my lap just listening intently to the outside noises, but I can tell she's tired.
I'm so happy to have her back! I don't think I'd realized how much I miss having her around.