I've talked a lot about Baldur, our "goodest boy," lately, so I think it's time for me to talk about our "goodest girl," Athena.
Athena has gone through a lot in the past two years. More than two years, actually - read more about our first few months with our second fur baby here: https://www.iveyink.com/blog/2018/5/20/athenas-tale. But this past year has been particularly hard on her.
A year ago this week, we discovered that Baldur was sick. While we knew what was going on, and that what we were doing was to help him, Athena didn't understand why he was gone all day one day and didn't come back home that night (he was having surgery). She didn't understand why he went on truck rides without her every couple weeks (he was having chemo). And she especially didn't understand why he was suddenly getting so many treats that she couldn't have (more cancer meds)... but, ooh, hey, he got liver and ground chicken and rice and she got to have some too, so she was on board with that change.
And she understood that something was up. She understood he couldn't play with her like he used to and she had to be gentle with her big brother who outweighed her by 12 pounds. She was a sweet good girl for her brother, who had been so sweet and good for her when she was scared and confused when we first brought her home. And because we wanted her to understand, when the inevitable eventually became unavoidable, we took her to the vet with us to say goodbye. We wanted her to understand that he didn't just disappear. And she understood - maybe too well. She was the first dog I ever knew who didn't care about going to the vet. Now... now she's scared to go to the vet, I think because she understands that Baldur never came back from there.
And that would have been enough for a tough year. But I was also pregnant when Baldur died. And because we had put off projects while he was sick, we suddenly had to hit the ground running getting things ready for our first human baby. We replaced the carpet and painted several rooms upstairs. We moved furniture from the guest room to the room across the hall to make room for the nursery furniture. We even bought a little bed for Athena to use in the nursery while we were in there with her. While we didn't want her unsupervised in the nursery, we also didn't want her to think she wasn't allowed in this room.
Three and a half months after Athena lost her big brother, she gained a little sister. We had finally started letting her sleep in the bedroom with us (Baldur had done so for years; Athena was still prone to overnight accidents even when Baldur was sick). Unexpectedly, two and a half weeks early, at two o’clock in the morning, Mommy and Daddy left and didn't come home for four days. I mean, Miss Tracy, our neighbor who is Athena's Very Favorite Person came by to take care of her, but, still.
When Mommy and Daddy came home, they had a little thing with them. It was tiny. It smelled weird. Because Athena is deaf, she was spared hearing her baby sister crying all the time... But she knew something had changed. Mommy and Daddy kept getting up in the middle of the night to take care of this thing.
Athena quickly decided that this little thing wasn't going anywhere; this obviously must be a new pack member. She got to where she was protective of the bassinet - if anyone other than Mommy and Daddy were over and went over to pick up her baby sister, Athena was right there, checking them out. When my mom would come over to help out and I would go upstairs to take a nap, Athena would NOT come up to snuggle with me, but rather stayed in the room with Granny, following her around just to make sure she wasn't Up To Something.
There were, of course, problems with the transition. We thought we had taken a step backward with the potty accidents... until we realized that Athena might actually be marking around the bassinet when we took Elianna to the nursery to feed and change her at night:
"Sis, you gotta mark your spot. Hey, did you hear me? You gotta mark your spot so no one takes it while you're gone. Nothing? OK, well, I'll do it for you this time so you'll know how it's done."
Mommy and Daddy were so tired, so sleep deprived and stressed that even though they tried to make an effort, they just couldn't seem to find time to play with Athena like they used to. But our little trooper just kept on trooping. And somewhere along the line, we realized she had become the Goodest Girl.
When Elianna is napping and wakes up, even before she gets upset, Athena knows and comes to find Mommy. If Athena can't find Mommy or Daddy, she goes to check the nursery first. She sits sweetly and lets Elianna touch her - we're teaching Elianna that her sister gets soft, gentle pets... but Athena was good with her little cousin when he came to visit Elianna this summer and crawled around the living room trying to touch her face, and when he almost pulled her tail at Christmas.
She has gotten along so well with the new dogs she's met this year; she went to the dog park for the very first time in October, and played well with furry family members at Christmas. And remember those marking incidents? As of last week, it's been four months since she had any kind of "accident" in the house.
There were times in the few weeks after we got Athena that we wondered if we had made a terrible mistake, that we were going to have a panicked, stubborn, floor wetting dog for the rest of her life. We couldn't imagine that she could ever be a as good as her very good big brother. Even a few months ago, it still hadn't really sunk in how much she improved.
I'm not sure when it happened, but somehow it did - Athena became a Very Good Girl. She met the very high standard that her big brother had set, and I know he would be so proud. We certainly are.
The Goodest Girl gets gentle pets from her sister. (Not the best quality picture, admittedly.)