Thanks for the joy in a dogs heart.....

We finally got to go and grab our new baby today! She's a 3 yr old German Shepherd, and she is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!!!

I will never again indulge in thoughts of a puppy. We picked up Sasha at 10am, and by 12 we were out walking her with a pram, just me and Alice and her (yeah, how's my grammar, right?!). She toddled along quite happily, not sniffing or dragging, not pulling, not new to a lead and not stopping to have a poo somewhere because she is trained already to wait until she's at home for those needs.

As far as rescue dogs are concerned, somehow I think I manifested the Cadillac of rescue dogs. She's technically not a rescue, she's a breeders dog that just doesn't want to have puppies, and her old owner is a man who seriously loves this breed. He spoke to me about 3 months ago about a dog he was trying to rescue from the pound, and she wasn't suitable for our home. And during that conversation, he mentioned that he had a dog he was currently breeding, but that 'he knew' she was wanting desperately to be in a family where she was the only dog. So I went and met her, and then I took each family member one by one to meet her as well, and well, it's been love at first sight every time.

The fella really struggled with this, because, well, to be honest, he's a little bit of a control freak. He's a fifo bloke (goes away for two weeks at a time and then returns), and he already misses So Much Stuff as it is, and then I found this dog, this dog I was totally sure was The Dog For Us. And he's a bit panicky about it, even still. It's totally slipped his mind that the boy we had for 13 yrs was a dog I'd found, and had to chuck a tanty to get him to agree to, and that Bruton was simply the best dog that not only we'd ever known, but that many other people had ever known as well. But I have to let him have a free pass on the freak-out factor with some stuff, because he just must feel so left out at times. It has got to be hard, being a family man who's away from his family all of the time, to sometimes realise that you don't have the reigns on every factor of life all of the time, even when massive decisions are being made.

So today I'm thankful for the joy in a dog's heart. She's just so relaxed, already. She knows, because, I guess, of the slow transition and because her previous owner was relaxed about us too, that here she is so well off. She's already going from house to car to school to car to house with so much ease I almost feel like I've had her a year. I actually felt so confident this afternoon that I took her to school to pick Ethan up - and got her out of the car (on a short lead, don't need anyone getting knocked over thanks!) and she walked up to the class with Alice and I and just sat and waited her new boy owner. Calm as you like. I swear, she just knows. She's even already learnt to sleep on the designated cushoin-y areas that we've popped around the house - including the one in Ethan's room because, well, he's an animal lover from way back and was quite insistent on this point.

So to evolution, I say thanks. Thanks for this fantastic bond that you have forged between people and dogs, and the dogs heart that you have made amazingly self-assured and loving.