Puppy Love

We have been dogless for over a year. A few months before we left Wakulla, our lovely orange Nikki died of old age. Well, actually, we (I) put her to sleep. She told me she was ready, so I did.

Then, just before we moved to town, our other dog, Beryl, failed rapidly, and when she told me to, I took her in to be put to sleep as well.

It was a tough time and we mourned mightily. But getting another dog wasn't really feasible. We were selling our home and moving to town. When we got to town, the yard wasn't fenced and there really was nowhere for a dog to live. If we bought that house, we'd make a dog-friendly yard, but until then? Dogless.

Then we bought this house, which has a nice, largish, fenced yard, and we began planning to get another dog. We decided to wait a little bit, in case we wanted to take a trip. It's not really fair to a dog to get it and then abandon it to dogsitters while you go off for a week or so. So we were planning to wait.

But then THIS happened:


This is "Kita". She belongs to my stepson and his wife. When they got her, they were told that she was part shepard and part lab. I don't think so. She has a gorgeous gold and black brindle coat, and to my knowledge, neither of those breeds have a coat like that.

No... we think she is part shepard and part catahoula.

She's got the shepard ears and face, with the catahoula shape, coat, and markings. She also has the finer bone structure of a catahoula.

Very sweet, eager to please. We've had her less than 24 hours and have managed to get her to walk on a leash without pulling. She's had little training, and definitely not enough exercise.

My stepson says the dog was his wife's idea. But neither of them have enough time to spend on a dog and since she's working so much, the work of having a dog is falling on him. He likes the dog, but doesn't care for the work of owning one.

We have a solution. Give us the dog. You guys can come visit her, but here she'll get lots of attention, lots of training, lots of exercise... and lots of love. Give her now, while she's still adaptable, not in two years when she's totally neurotic from not having enough exercise or attention.

I fell hard. Can you tell?