Life After Loss

After losing our Roo Bear, I have been very wary of letting Cricket run loose, so I've been skijoring with her. She is very strong and fast! I still try to let her enjoy retirement--when she wants to stop and sniff something or pee on something, I do not discourage her. But she's only interested in such things for a little while when we first start out, and then she is all business. She is a very serious dog! It is amazing that although she is very youthful, she doesn't have the temperament of youth. She doesn't like to play, she doesn't like to run in circles, she does NOT like puppies, she does NOT like Labradors. She likes only to eat, to run, and to cuddle.



I put the word out that we were looking for a Friend for her. The owner of our boarding kennel suggested we meet Roxy and Greta, two sweet girls who are half MacKenzie River Husky and half Alaskan. They were the result of an "oopsie" breeding, and I know most of the homes where their siblings are. These two girls were in a pet home, but their humans moved to Oregon and could not take them, so they ended up being "boarded" indefinitely. I'm a sucker for giant, fuzzy dogs, but also prefer older dogs, and they are only 3! Still, no harm in meeting them. One never knows. Also, a boarding kennel is a perfect place to meet since they both are comfortable there, but also so many dogs come and go that no dogs really regard it as "their" place.

We only met Greta, the sweeter of the two, and she was really, really sweet (and being beautiful was only a bonus!), but Cricket was pretty unimpressed. Greta wanted to play! Cricket did not want to play.


She gave me a hug! Many hugs, in fact! If I had been looking for a dog "from scratch" and not to be Cricket's companion, I'd have taken her in a heartbeat.


Cricket was rather annoyed and needed a hug, too!


"Can we please go home, without that giant puppy?"


Well, if any local Fairbanks folks are reading this and would like one or two beautiful, sweet, 3-year-old girls with known health and behavior histories, let me know! The former owner would be more than happy to talk to you at any time, too!

Today we headed up to Cricket's kennel of origin. I figured it would be a slam dunk here, and it was. In fact, when we went to look for Cricket herself, two other dogs were up for retirement, and one was still on the list (the other was claimed by their current dog handlers, a couple from Oregon who fell in love with him and want to take him home with them after they finish their stint as dog handlers). Several others were also on the list. We finally narrowed it down to Thistle, a 9-year-old leader who was ready to retire, and Gremlin, a boy who was born at the same time as Cricket, so both sets of puppies had grown up together. Both were sweet, cuddly, and calm, and Cricket tolerated them both. She did not actively engage, but she's not really an active engager for anything but cuddling, and she only wanted to cuddle with DL then. But she knew them and obviously didn't mind them either, which is about as good as can be expected with her.

DL and I could barely decide between the two, and honestly, I think either one would work out just fine. But what swayed me toward Thistle was her eyes. This face:


Those eyes! She reminds me so much of Autumn. I think that is an "old leader" look.

You can see it again in this photo, in which Thistle and Sparrow remind me so much of Autumn and Linden:


The dogs look very similar to each other, but one's eyes are all wisdom and inner calm, while the other's are all gooberdy ebullience.

Happy, happy! Joy, joy!


This photo (I put Thistle's name into Jodi's blog to find these) reminds me also of Autumn, how she used to hang out on top of her doghouse:


Well, I'm going to pick her up next Thurs! I hope Starbuck-A-Roo, Autumn, and Linden, all continue to smile down on us and wish us a smooth transition!