With one notable exception.
We were so thrilled with how our first dog, Hawksley worked out, that we decided just before Christmas that we'd get a brother or sister for him when we got back to Cleveland after Christmas. We started looking on Petfinder for rescue dogs up for adoption, and fell in love with a little Shepherd/Husky mix whose litter had been neglected and then taken by a Humane Society in central Ohio.
So we made the arrangements to meet her, and on January 15th we drove down to Washington Courthouse to pick up a 9-week old little girl that we named Miga, after one of the Vancouver Olympic Mascots.
Miga the mascot is "a mythical sea bear, part orca and part kermode bear living off the coast of Vancouver Island". Miga the dog has markings on her face that make her look like a killer whale (in our minds anyways) and we thought the name paid a nice little tribute the part of the world we still call home.
Here's how Miga looked on the day we brought her home:
Hawksley took to her right away, and she was pretty interested in him too. But her first couple of days she was really tired so we didn't see much of her personality. By Monday, she was having diarrhea and vomiting, and we realized something wasn't right. We took her to the animal hospital in Akron and it turned out she had a pretty bad case of Canine Parvovirus, a virus that attacks the dog's gastrointestinal system, preventing them from eating, drinking and keeping anything down. If untreated most dogs will die from this, and even with treatment, we were told its often just a 50/50 chance.
Luckily, she responded to treatment and we were able to take her back home that friday night. She weighed only 6 lbs, but already had more energy and we got to see her true personality, which was really sweet, cuddly and loving. Not quite 3 months later, she's already up to 25 lbs or so, is best friends with Hawksley, and is a great pup all in all. And as a bonus, now that we have two dogs, they will play with each other and give us a break every now and then, which makes us a more relaxed couple in general.
Here are a few more pictures of the dogs in action.
Hopefully we will have another update soon. Could be an interesting one; Erin is currently in Argentina for a work trip/vacation while I hold down the fort here in Cleveland, and I imagine she'll have some great stories and pictures to share once she gets back.
