Sunday 30 August 2009

Whisky

Mesdames, Messieurs, je présente....Whisky.

So here's the story of the dog.

I needed a reason to peruse the pet section in Ikea, so we bought a dog.

Not really.
Kevin has wanted a dog for the longest time, but I didn't, so we didn't. Then at some point this summer, it hit me like a delayed thunderbolt, that Kevin REALLY wanted a dog, and that he hadn't pushed it because I hadn't wanted one, so that made me feel a whole lot of stuff, but the end result was that I realised, we should get a dog.
Is there a thread in there somewhere?
To me there is.

So we started looking. I would look at the local papers and he looked at the animal rescue centres' websites. He didn't have a clear idea of what type of dog he wanted, but we both knew which we didn't want, and the animal shelters were full of them - pit bulls and rottweilers.

We had narrowed it down more to dogs we didn't want.
Size - neither accessory nor Bugblatter beast.
No breed that had impaired breathing or the inability to lap water on its own. In fact, it seems the current trend here is to get crosses that give rise to breeds with strange new names, and which avoid problems that pedigree dogs frequently have.
Labradoodles, Maltipoos - which gets mis-spelt by the non-native English speakers to 'Multipoos'.

On one of our expeditions to North Vancouver, we were taken by a small to medium sized dog with a pleasant temperament, the owner said it was a 'Shishon or Zuchon' - ie a cross between a Bichon Frisé and a Shit!Sue! - both breeds we would have avoided.

So I kept my eye on the local ads. Puppies go quickly. We rang up for some Wheaten Terriers, all gone.

On Thursday, I saw an ad for a litter of Zuchons. I rang, and they hadn't all gone. Friday I went to see them and picked one out, Saturday I picked our puppy up.

Let the games begin.

9 comments:

Sleepy said...

Not sure I get this.
So it's a cross between two dogs who were bred to sit on laps?

Schneewittchen said...

Well...two negatives make a positive...hopefully.
Although, having seen both the mother and the father, you'd have to have a lap the size of a coffee table to have them sit on you.

Anonymous said...

OMG!!!

He's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Cute!!!

Can you bring him tonight????!?!?!

I bet you're going to LOVE being a dog owner! Have you bonded with Whisky yet??

You're going with the Protestant spelling I note rather than the Catholic one.

I'd LOVE to have a dog too, horay for Kevin and to you for being understanding.

Bozo5 (arugh, where's my auto login?)

Schneewittchen said...

Hmmm...didn't think of it as the Proddy spelling, more the Scotch over the Irish :)

kdf said...

Sleepy, I knew you would approve of nothing less than a Mastiff named Shitkicker. We, however, are not experienced dog owners and wanted to have a smaller problem if I f* it up. Not to mention, the grandkids will love him.

Bozo, I wouldn't expect him to travel much until he's housebroken and has a bit more strength in his immune system.

Schneewittchen said...

Shitkicker! We never even considered that as a name dammit! I can just imagine telling the group of small girls who gathered round the first day we had him, that his name was Shitkicker, or calling it out in the park.
No-one is to tell Laurence of this missed opportunity...

Travelling STaff said...

Kevin, I can bring some CpG1826 from Coley - that will put his TH1 immune system in OVERDRIVE and he'll be INVINCIBLE and able to travel anywhere (for a short while) and I can bring newspapers for the other thing - maybe some Daily Mails . . .

What about calling your next dog "Satan," that way you can stand at the door way and yell, "Satan! Where are you, Satan? Satan! Come into the house Satan!"

Unknown said...

Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Ditto on the cute comment!

A bit of trivia...in Chile, it was "whiskey" we were told to shout on the count of three when our photographs were being taken...

Schneewittchen said...

Yeah, no, when we saw the vet this afternoon, she specifically said,
'Don't give him any CpG1826,'.....

Dawn - seems appropriate to me! :))