So Zoë has finally started to shed. I know this sounds weird, but when we got her, her fur was so coarse and thin that she didn't shed at all, and brushing produced almost no loose hair. We started her right away on Nutro food because it promised to improve skin and coat. While I can't vouch that the food has cured all her problems (I suspect that *any* nutrition program at that point would have improved her skin and coat), it's undeniable that her fur has improved. She's now got a thick, downy underlayer, and her coat's exactly the color of creme brulee: toasty brown on the top and creamy inside. I combed her today and got three big wads of underfur off.
However, this good news surely defines her earlier hardships more starkly: she had no undercoat whatsoever when we got her. This means that our best guess was probably right in that she did lose a litter right before we got her. A bitch usually "blows coat" right before whelping. Add that to the fact that her, um, external bits are looking a lot less external than they used to ... yeah.
More good news, though -- she's really starting to understand commands now. Not just that she needs to do them, but why she needs to do them, and that she'll get rewarded. Up until recently she was still pretty unsure of why we were yelling at her, and now I think she's finally deduced that if she leaves the cats alone, she's pretty much okay. This is a big step, especially since the cats are finally getting brazen enough to wander downstairs again.
We're also working heavily on her retrieving and recall, because come spring, we want to be able to take her to the park to play frisbee, and not have to worry about her not coming back.
Posted by Jane