Our latest family member.. Ned

If you follow my blog, you would have seen that a while ago our baby girl Patch was hit by a car. This left us feeling a huge empty spot in our lives, and I was at the point where whenever a friend spoke about their pups at home I would burst into tears. It had only been a week but we talked and decided we needed a new friend to love and spend our lives with.
I didnt want to just get a puppy, I wanted to rescue a dog or puppy from a pound or rescue centre. This is when we met Ned.
He was a 5 month old "Bitsa - x" and located in the Shepparton pound. Huby thought he was cute so we bit the bullet and went to meet him on our lunch breaks one Friday.
He was very friendly, and quite happy to recieve belly rubs and pats. I fell in love. Obviously, he was not Patch but he was another pup, in need of a loving home. We decided to talk it over during the weekend. It was the longest weekend I have experienced, umming and ahhing, working out if we really were ready for a new addition or if it was too soon. So many people had different opinions and it kept clouding our decisions. It came down to the Sunday night and I had told the lady at the pound we would let her know either way Monday. I was still feeling the emptiness and not 100%. I went and sat at Patch's grave and talked to her. I think speaking it aloud helped me make the decision. It was when hubby came out and found me chatting away with Patch at her gravesite that we made the decision - Neddy would be coming home with us for a trial, if he chased too much or was too into the cars that went racing past we would re consider...

Monday morning arrived and we went our seperate ways, Luke to work and me to a driving course. I was looking forward to calling the pound and telling them we would take Ned home. 8:30am arrived and of course I jumped on the phone - I may have been a bit early as they didnt answer,  so I tried again about 8:45. Emma answered and I told her we would love to take Ned home and will be in later that day to pick him up.
The pound closed at 4 so I had to finish what I was doing early and head over to sign some papers and then take Ned in the car to pick up Luke from work. 3pm finally arrived and I headed off to the pound. Once the paperwork was completed I was taken out the back to collect Ned, He was very excited to be leaving the pound, though kept stopping and checking over his shoulder as if he expected someone to come after him. I reassured him and he trotted to the car.
At first he was hesitant, but then he got into the car and we went off to get Luke.

We got to Lukes work and he still had a bit of time until he was knocking off. So I took Ned for  a walk. He loved it, and this is where I first noticed his trait - one ear stands up and one ear flops most of the time!!

Once Luke finished work it was off home to meet John and Julie and explore his new home, and hopefully meet our cat Ginge without upsetting him!

Fast forward to today, Ned has been with us about a month and already made himself perfectly at home. We have managed to train him not to chase cars, and he no longer shows interest in anything going past on the road - such a relief!! Our next adventure is to complete dog training. We start the first week in April (provided the course gets enough interest to go ahead!) I have many funny (and not so funny) stories about Neddy already, though if I was to sit here and type them all you would probably fall asleep before getting to the end of this post... I'll save the stories for a rainy day :)

It is nice to get home and be met by a dog bounding up the path towards you. No matter what mood I am in it always makes me smile. Even better are the cuddles whilst sitting outside on the lawn giving Ned belly rubs. He (and Ginge cat) are our only babies for now.

I'll leave you with two of my favourite dog related quotes:

"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face." -- Bern Williams
"No animal I know of can consistently be more of a friend and companion than a dog."
- Stanley Leinwoll

 

Until next time

x