Dog Parents Once Again

This is Avalanche! He is 11 years old and the newest member of our family!

It's been almost 15 months without a dog.

That's a long time. Too long, but I wasn't sure I was ready.

I'd been looking at rescue sites and shelters for the past few months, and I sent a few inquiries about various dogs, but none ended up being a good match. So I kept my eyes open and was hoping to find a older dog that just wanted a family to love them and when I came across Avalanche's profile, something felt different.

Our eight Dachshunds were small, brown-eyed, short-haired girls, and now our ninth dog is a Husky and the complete opposite in every way: a tall, long-haired, blue-eyed boy!

Fun Fact: my very first dog was a Husky when I was a baby!

The timeline for how all of this came to be:

December 14 - perusing the Friends of Homeless Animals site, I came across his photo

December 15 - C and I filled out an application for him

December 17 - we went to meet him and quickly decided we wanted to adopt him

December 20 - we had our home study/interview and got our final approval

Due to family - and in particular, B2 and S2's two dogs - visiting for Christmas, as well as us traveling for a few days after Christmas, we decided it would be in Avalanche's best interest to stay with the rescue until January 1 so he could come home to a quiet house in order to ease the transition for him.

We've really enjoyed buying supplies for him - new dog beds, bowls, collar, leash - because I donated most of what we had when Ginny passed away (the dog beds would have been too small for Avalanche anyway!).

A sweet coincidence...remember the Betty White challenge back in January - make a donation to an animal charity in her honor on January 17 on what would have been her hundredth birthday? After much deliberation, I chose FOHA, having always admired their work, and exactly eleven months later, on December 17, we were at their facility, meeting our dog!

He's 11 and we know that means we won't get to love him for as long as we would like, but we are going to give him the best life possible! We had Chelsea for almost 17 years and it still wasn't enough time. It never is. But we have a real soft spot for senior dogs and five of our eight Dachshunds were seniors when we adopted them: Molly was 14, Gunni was 12, Duchess was 15, Sadie was 12, and Riley was 10. I cherished every moment I was lucky enough to share with them. I know the same will be true with Avalanche.

I've thought so much about this quote since we lost Ginny:

"Once you have had

a wonderful dog,

life without one,

is a life diminished."

- Dean Koontz -

We are so excited to be dog parents once again and I have no doubt that our eight gals at the Rainbow Bridge are wagging their tails in approval! I will always, always, ALWAYS be a Dachshund mom, but now I'm a Husky mom, too!

this was his official pic and
I was immediately smitten...
very Paul Hollywood-esque :)

note the date

his new bed - the pattern is Crater Lake

his new name tag - a little nod to
our eight gals at the Rainbow Bridge

Happy Tails to you!