Pet Updates

Hello, everyone!

As readers of the blog know, Christopher passed away last January. Well, six weeks later, we also lost Kandi, Jeff's family dog. Kandi started to decline before Christmas, and had moments where she bounced back. But by March, she was struggling, and we decided to make the painful decision to end her suffering. She had a long life (almost 16 years!) and was loved and cared for until the very end.

Chris and Kandi had a very unique bond. Kandi had stayed with my parents when Chris was there so that she could get treatment for her arthritis and the two of them were thick as thieves. We took the two of them to the Dog Days baseball game in San Francisco, they took walks around the creek by our old home, and always protected each other. If a dog or other animal charged or threatened one of them, the other stood up to the imposing animal. As you can see in the photos, they were always with each other. Even when Kandi was sick, Chris stood guard, and vice versa.

Our pups together

Kandi, as sweet as she was, was not always the brightest at times, and was accident prone. She had been hit by a car twice: once when she was younger, and again at 12. The first time, Jeff was able to help pay the bills, and the second time, she was hit in front of a vet's home, who took care of her for almost nothing. Until the very end she was very healthy, even surprising the vet with how healthy she was. She outlived her siblings by a few months, we were told.

When Chris died it was a very sad time for us, but Kandi it was mixed emotions. We were relieved that she was no longer in pain, and that she and Chris would be together taking care of each other. But there was definitely a bigger hole in the spirit of our house. Our three puppies, Fox, Jacob and Pepino, seemed like they were lost without their leaders, and it was hard to feel happy about anything. When Chris passed, we had considered looking for another dog, but weren't rushed. When Kandi passed, after some thought and prayer, we decided to pursue getting another dog.

After some thought and prayer, we decided to go back to Merced County Animal Shelter in Atwater, CA. Even though this is over a two-hour drive, this shelter has special meaning to us. This was the shelter we rescued Chris from, and where Jen's sister, Myra, got her dog, Mason. When we adopted Chris, this shelter had a very high kill rate of dogs that they took in (if you'll recall, Chris was hours from euthanasia). So, to honor our "firstborn", we returned to save another dog. Little did we realize what we were getting into.

Originally, we were debating between a female German Shepherd and a male Pitbull. Jeff went with the dogs, and together they decided on the German Shepherd. While there, though, Jeff noticed a young girl husky mix, and it was decided that Jen would go the next time to meet the German Shepherd as well as this other dog. As it turned out, the husky girl was very fearful of our pack, and especially didn't like Pepino, so we passed on her. While looking through the kennels, however, we found a large male Husky, and brought him out to meet everyone: both of us, our three dogs, and the German shepherd, and it was a match made in heaven! The deciding factor on the husky was his eyes. They reminded us so much of Christopher's, we couldn't tell him no, so we arranged for them both to get fixed, get their shots, and we drove up to pick them up!

We had a lot of names in mind for dogs, but from when they went in to get shots on Thursday until we picked them up two days later, we decided on their names. Our German shepherd girl is named Callie. It was a similar name as Kandi, and Jen wanted a dog with a C name for Chris, so Callie was a good combination. She also has that same personality as Kandi: very sweet and pretty mellow, but just a little dopey :-). She is very young and it seems like she's grown since we got her, but we have her down as about 2 years of age.

Our other pup is a little boy husky named Ichabod. Ichabod was the harder one to name, because we couldn't agree on a name. A lot of huskies have very outdoorsy and cold-weather-themed names, like Snow, or Aspen, or Laika. But when we saw the name Ichabod, we felt the name fit his personality. He is a lot like Christopher, in that he's very bright and picks up on things fast. He also is a very happy dog, and smiles a lot, but isn't too much of a handful. He doesn't walk the greatest on leash, and when one of us has him, the other one will have to man the other four dogs! But over time he'll figure things out.

 The two puppies blended in well to the pack, but they also have a unique bond with each other. Jen always jokes that they're littermates, although that isn't possible obviously. They are often cuddling with each other and tend to stay close. The only downside is that they both sleep on Jen's side of the bed, so with them both there with Fox, and Pepino usually sleeping with Jen also, it gets hard if she has to get up in the middle of the night! 

Although we are still very sad about losing our two babies, we are very happy to welcome these new babies into our home and to help save two other lives.