Day 20 - A Little Shadow

Written by Erin

Little Cooper seems to be trusting me more now. He followed me around today. When I went to pick up his poopie pile, he was walking towards me wagging his tail. I patted him and continued towards the target which was still several feet away. After I bent down to pick it up, I turned around and Cooper was sitting behind me. I rewarded him with more pets. I then went inside to throw away the baggie. Next, I came outside to pick up his empty food bowl. He again met me with tail wags, and again he was sitting at my feet when I turned around.

As I went back to the garage to throw away the bowl, he was following me again. I waited for him at the sidewalk by the garage. He came up to within a few feet of me as usual, and then sat down waiting for pets. I decided I'd give him extra attention. I put a towel in my lap, and put him on my legs to cuddle while I rubbed him all over. He started up sitting, and he seemed to be a little nervous. After just a few minutes, he lay down, put his head down, and took a little nap. He really seemed to enjoy when I rubbed his head. While we were there, a little chipmunk walked across the sidewalk in front of us. Cooper lifted his head to watch. When the chipmunk continued on his way, Cooper just put his head back down.

It seemed to be very hot in the garage yesterday. Even though Cooper has battled hypothermia, we found him panting a few times. We pointed a fan at one end of his crate. We still turned on the heat lamp before bed, just in case it got cold in the morning. We had the fan at one end and the heat lamp at the other so that he could decide where he wanted to sleep. We will leave the fan on at all times so that he never gets overheated.