Our New Dog

We had a dog that was a member of our family for over 8 years. In January we lost him to an illness. He was a beautiful 120 pound black lab. Duke was a rescue animal that and quickly became my husband’s farming and hunting partner.  He was a very well behaved gentle giant. Duke and my husband were connected at the hip. The only place Duke did not go with us was to doctor visits and grocery shopping. Our hearts were broken when we lost Duke. The one thing we were glad about was when the vet told us how serious his medical condition was but assured us he was not in pain. We decided not to put him down. We brought him home and set the alarm so we could give him his medication 4 times a day. We feed him by using a tube and he loved being outdoors so my husband would pick him up and carry him outside several times a day to lay under his favorite tree.

When Duke peacefully passed at home, we used the backhoe and dug a place under his favorite tree, in our front yard, and laid Duke to rest. Duke loved peanut butter wafer bars and we put two of them in with him before saying good bye. It was a very sad and difficult day for us. My husband missed Duke’s company so much. In April we talked about maybe looking at some of the shelters for a new friend. We have a 3 pound Pomeranian that we rescued the same day we rescued Duke. We needed to make sure that whoever we added to our family that Missy would accept as well.

In April and May we passively looked, asking a few friends of ours that were vets if they knew of anyone that knew of a dog. Everyone told us they would keep a look out for someone that had a litter of pups that they were not expecting.  Last week one of our vet friends called and said that someone had dumped off what appeared to be a 1 year old full blooded healthy Siberian Husky. We took Missy and went to meet this guy. He took to my husband right away and after a smelling game, Missy seemed to think he was okay as well. So Wednesday June 5^th we brought him home to our farm.

We have done a lot of reading up on his breed and have spent the last few days getting to know him.  It seems he has been kept outside on a chain and was surprised that he could come in the house and that he has his own bed. He seems very smart and full of energy. We have spent time taking him for walks around the farm on a lead and working with him to sit, lay and come to us. My husband decided to let him out to go for a run yesterday and boy did he run. We looked for him for well over an hour and thought he was gone for good. When we returned home he was laying at the front door waiting for us.

It is clear that we have a lot of work with him ahead of us but we are looking forward to him having the run of the farm. It is the start of a new chapter in our lives and his. He seems happy and at home here and we are happy that he is now a member of our family. We look forward to the day when he can go farming and hunting without being on a lead. I feel in my heart that he is looking forward to that day as well. We have tried a few names with him and the only thing he seems to respond to is Boy and Good Boy. So for now that is what we call him and that makes him wag his tail, which make us know we made a great choice for all of us.