I Really Hate Kaiser And Other Rantings

Got up around 7:00 and took Hiker out for her morning walk. She sure loves to walk. When she sees her leash and I saw “walk”, she is at the front door ready to go. I have some problems with her coming to me when I call her sometimes (she's stubborn) but she really is a very smart dog. She knows her new name pretty well because she looks at me when I say it now. Still will not potty on her walk, but she does seem to go when I put her out in the yard. I just wish she would somehow let me know when she needs to go like going to the door or something. A representative from the mortuary where I had Ben's remains taken care of came to see me this morning. She was nice, but I knew that she wanted to discuss me doing prepaid arrangements for myself. I told her I would think about it but that right now I need to take care of a problem with Kaiser about a bill I received from Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital and that until that is cleared up, I do not want to commit to spending more money. She was very nice about it and I told her I would call her because I probably will eventually do the prepay thing so my brother Keith would not have to worry about that later. Had to go over to my attorney's office to have them draft a letter for me and notarize it because Kaiser is being very stupid about things. Because I appealed the bill from Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, they insisted I send them documentation saying that I am legally acting on Ben's behalf. This is so dumb because he was on MY health insurance because he didn't have insurance of his own. I get the feeling that Hiker, before she ended up at the pound and then was saved by the rescue shelter was treated badly by someone. I think they must have hit her or something because she is really having problems learning to come to me when I call her. Today I had to go over to my attorney's office for about 45 minutes and I put Hiker in the garage with her hard crate. I didn't lock her in it, I just left the door open so if she wanted to get into it and I put her nylabone, her squeaky toy that she loves and I took an old T-Shirt that I wore all day yesterday so she had my scent. and put all of this into her crate. When I came home, she was in the crate but didn't want to come out. She cowered and started shaking. I kept calling her name and got down on one knee and told her how good she was and finally she came to me but crawled on her belly to come to me. I hugged her and praised her when she got to me, then she started acting "normal" again and licking me. It's like she thinks if she comes to me that I'm going to hit her or something. I tried putting the leash on her and waited until her attention was elsewhere and then called her and she ignored me, so I said "bad girl" and tugged on her leash a little. Still nothing so I said "bad girl" again and tugged again, then she crawled over to me on her belly and lay down in front of me like she was afraid, so then I hugged her and praised her again. I don't yell at her when she doesn't come I just change my tone of voice. I hope I can get her to trust me and not be afraid.