The Freegle Arrives

it's like being on mars, she said. he didn't want to eat or drink. he perked his head up when he heard birds not knowoing what they were. he cowered when i pssst him when he peed against a chair.

when you approach he stops but not from happiness, a look comes over him, resignation, submission.

he mistook his reflection in the oven for another beagle and became excited. he had spent his life in a cate with a dog named zeke.  

i took him to the vet, near tears. they said what a good dog he was when they examined him, no one needed to hold him.
 of course, i said.
at the vet a dog came out and baxter got all excited and i had to restrain him. then he kept seeing his reflection in the glass and thiought it was another dog, and kept trotting toward it happily then stopping short.

he was 30 pounds and healthy, said the vet. good weight, good muscalature, some teeth tartar but they prob won't have to pull. no one knows if he has had shots because the lab didn't give any paperwork so the suppostiion is no. she said she'd studied animal lab science was trying to remember if  and i stiffened up. j
when he's scared he stiffens then relaxes as if resigned.
i asked john for a crate and he brought one and then we spent some time in the yard. baxter figured out how to go up stairs, though it took him awhile. he wouldn't come to whre we were sitting, thinking the tall grass was a barrier.

housetraining is going to be hard. inside and outside don't seem to have meaning for him. our yard is deck for the first two levels and only the third one has grass. he likes trotting around, or pacing, depending on your point of view and i don't know what mine is.

when we came home he lunged at the cats, all excited. oh boy.

we gave him a bath. john said he smelled as if he'd never had a bath and of course he probably hasn't. why would they bother?
i got in the bath with him and was soon covered in hair. he struggled and shivered and i held him and he tolerated it but he was scared. we need more training bathing him.

now he's under the bed in the guest room. and i'm on it. he was pacing but i don't knwo what's on his mind. i just watch his tail. tail up: ok. tail down: give him love.

c