Good questions

Keep asking questions - I'll keep answering them.

As for "kennelling" or "crating" Leeta, here's the scoop.

Leeta was raised using a dog crate - for those of you unfamiliar (as I was) with them, they're the big plastic crates originally used to transport them in airplanes.  It has a wire grille front hinged door and a lot of air holes on the other sides.

CCI has asked that for the time being that we crate her at night and basically anytime we're not actually spending time with her.  There are several reasons for this including that it will be a while until our house is truly Leeta-safe.  We're knew to this, and taking our time getting things situated is good, especially since I'm still working on parts of the house and have tools and other potentially dangerous stuff around.  Also, the crate is Leeta's safe place.  She's known a crate since she was 8 weeks old and first away from her mom.  She and all CCI dogs know that they can rely on the fact that when they're in their crate that they won't be bothered or expected to do anything other than the regular stuff they're never allowed to do unless we give a command - this includes barking and toileting.  So Leeta likes the crate and is comfortable in there.

Later, when she's more comfortable around the house and we're certain that it's safe, she can sleep out of the crate.  We got her a nice cushioned, fleece bed that we have in front of the fireplace (yep, there's a holiday card in there somewhere).  Some owners want her to sleep in bed with them and CCI doesn't have a problem with that, but for us it's pretty much not feasible, so we've chosen not to allow her in bed or basically on any furniture.

By the way, we have on of those front loading clothes washers & I brought in the closet for a tour after she had napped and decompressed for awhile and I had put a load of laundry in it and Leeta was fascinated with the tumbling soapy water.  This reinforces an idea Susan has.  At the CCI dorm, Leeta was always wanting to look into the laundry room which we passed going back and forth to our dorm room.  It didn't matter if anyone was in the room, or even if the washer & dryers were in use.  So Susan things that while Leeta was in prison, that maybe they had her working in the laundry.