New doggie on a home visit

So we went to the rescue woman's house. Her son was not there, but she said he had resigned himself to the dog being up for adoption, the dog has been on their web site for 6 months. She runs a rescue for Dachsunds, and this is an apparent Dachsund/Cocker Spaniel cross. He is quite comical in appearance.

Anyway, we brought the Cattle Dog (CD) along. At first it looked like a complete disaster. They invited CD into the house, and she could not relax, which made her if not aggressive, then at least unwilling to do anything other than bark. We finally let her play in their fenced yard alone for 10 minutes and then brought the Dauchsund/Cocker Spaniel (DCS) out. They were both on leashes and did fine in the yard -- came up to say hello and sniff and then wander off and back again.

So after an hour there we asked if we could bring the dog home for the afternoon or the weekend. She made me sign a paper, but did not ask me to put down a deposit.

Hubby and Brian took the dogs to a park we don't normally walk to and they did fine there. Now the DCS is wandering around the house, Brian hovering. CD runs back and forth from her precious chewy bone and back to the see what the DCS is doing and then back again to the chewy. CD does not seem aggressive to me. She is on-watch and I think just acting like a herding dog. She seems to think it is her job to make certain that DCS doesn't go anywhere he shoudn't -- especially anywhere near her chewy.

We haven't give the DCS a chewy, btw, because CD has a history of claiming all chewies for herself. This is surprisingly okay with DCS. He just wanders around, waving his silky tail over his back.

Andrew is very nervous that his cat (here called Big Black) will be disturbed by the new dog. I think Big Black will be fine. He just looked at DCS from his perch on top of Brian's bunk bed. Big Black also has his own private cat walk from the laundry room kitty door, along the rec room wall, and into Andrew's bedroom. At this point, Big Black and DCS seem to be bored with each other. We went ahead and bought Big Black some canned cat food, mostly to make Andrew feel better.

While I was writing this the kitten started playing with DCS. CD was chewing her bone and watching. The kitten attacked and then ran off. DCS started to run after the kitten, but CD barked once, ran between them allowing the kitten to escape, and then went back to her chewy once they were separated.

Just in case anyone is wondering: this puts us at three cats and two dogs.

Another note: Brian just took the dog out for a walk. This is a dog that he can walk. It does not run ahead and pull on the leash. Its legs are short enough that it just toddles along at his pace.