Adopting new furry family members

Adopting New Fur-Family Members !!

Today we celebrate the adoption of two new fur-kids. It is a very interesting story how this all came about. After the loss of our Skyla, Duchess fell right into senior mode more than ever. Duchess began showing more signs that the 10 years she's lived is getting her a bit tired. She wants to sleep more, do less, and keep to herself... except for food and cuddles. 

So when it came to looking for new dogs we determined we should get two, so that Duchess will not be bothered by the young energy as much - the young ones would play together rather than bother her. Sadly for weeks we scoured local shelters, then broadening our research to up to out of Province (Alberta and NwT). Only the northern shelters had dogs coming up and so transport logistics were going to be an issue. The other shelters had older or aggressive dogs - not what we were looking for.

Then, all of a sudden, two dogs came available locally - within days of each other. These were re-home dogs, as opposed to shelter adoption. Their families just could not keep them anymore. 

One was from a nearby community and she is a 1 year old Kelpie-Shepherd cross. Beautiful, golden angel, but major high energy and the strength of an ox. We decided to name her Nimway (which means " Lady of the lake "). We learned that as she is a year old, we could transition her to adult food. Just a few days later we adopted another 6 month old puppy that ended up being a Kelpie-Collie cross. We thought that was neat - them both being young, re-home cases, available within an couple hour drive and Kelpie crosses. Interesting, yes?

We decided that since the original name of the 6 month old had a native Indian name that meant peaceful water... we renamed her Sabrina which translates roughly to "peaceful river Princess". 

Some time passed before we learned that the word 'Kelpie' comes from the celtic language and means: water spirit. 

So the two dogs are water themed from every direction! - "But do they like water?" we wondered. Yes. Nimway is fascinated with the garden hose, spray nozzles, shower time... lol And Sabrina is very playful around water too. About 10 days after adopting them, they got their first bath here... and they loved it!

But the interesting connections don't stop there... Interestingly all three of our dogs are royalty. Duchess, the Lady and the Princess :)  

Kinda cool how that all ties together, hey? 

They have settled in, had their vet check ups and one was spade and had a small hernia repaired at the same time. The transition and vet related anxiety - energy is still high but that will fade in time. Right now we are just trying to keep them from playing so the little one can heal. Then we can get back to some structural training around the house, a little more introduction to the leash and threshold training. 

Its a lot of energy here. Some stressful and sleepless times too. And expensive month :). The vet visits, the operation, the medications, the new toys and 3 different bags of quality food (puppy, adult, senior). However they've brought laughter back in the house. Dave mentioned to me that he was so glad to see me happy again and I realized then how much the impending loss of our Skyla weighed so heavily for more than a year. Yes, I'm finding joy again and feeling a little of the weight ease off my chest. These little bundles of squiggly kisses are bringing me into a new frame of mind for sure :)

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