Phineas has been quiet since Gwen left us. Actually, the world has been a little quiet. Once you are used to the patter and play of two dogs, the silence of one, even a beagle, is deafening. Ali was not too happy, but probably not surprised, when she asked what I wanted for Christmas and I replied a dog. We've often rescued with Gwen being the only of our dogs coming from a breeder who was also a friend.
These days it seems as though local public shelters are overfilled with pit bulls and pit bull mixes. We aren't bringing a pit bull home. We tried to wade through the well-meaning, but generally misguided private rescue shelters. We walked this path before and were disappointed to unsuccessfully work with a "rescue" shelter. They seem to us to be more intent on holding rescued animals in long term prison while looking for their vision of a perfect home rather than seeking to find a place where the animal can be happy and loved. After a look at springer rescues, pointer rescues, and aussie rescues, I wanted to move on to someone with a dog and a genuine desire to find a home for it.
Ali's goal was not an easy one. We wanted a female since we expected blending in a new family member would be smoother if the new dog was the opposite sex. Ali wanted an older companion dog rather than a puppy. We both wanted an aussie 45 pounds or less. We had located one in Indiana, but being the holidays, it was adopted before we had time to travel to meet it. She located a few others, but getting replies from the breeder during the holiday season was harder than expected. Than Ali found
Samilyn Aussies with not only one, but two potential companion females available for adoption. It was time for a holiday road trip to Ann Arbor!
Our ride was spiced up with the spotting of an old Fiat 125p on a car trailer. It was still running with a Polish license plate. A little internet research found the car is registered in the
voivodeship of
Podkarpackii in the southestern edge of Poland. Fiat 125p's were manufactured between 1967 and 1991. This appears to be from sometime during the last ten years of the production run. It passed us by very quickly, and this was Ali's first effort with images from an iPhone. I thought the image turned out well. I hoped we might see it again at a rest area, but the trailer was moving quickly. It was a fun distraction.
We brought Phineas along to evaluate his response to the new potential dogs. We were smart enough to stop at a local county park to enjoy a series of caches and give Phin a nice, long walk.
We made the trip hoping to see two female aussies, Blizzard and Puppet. We knew there was a real chance Blizzard had been adopted the day prior. A family was coming to see her and possibly adopt her. We were happily surprised to find both dogs were still there. They are both beautiful with Blizzard being a red merle and Puppet being a less common red tri. We knew in advance that Puppet was shy. She wanted nothing to do with me and Phineas. She warmed ever so slightly to Ali. If she were coming into a dogless family, I would have taken a chance since she seemed a gentle and quiet soul, but it is Phineas' home and he had to be okay with the decision.
Blizzard quickly became the belle of the ball. She and Phineas played enthusiastically and she was friendly with both of us. She made the decision for us. We stopped for one quick cache with her on the way home so she could have a geocache find in Michigan, but didn't want to push our luck since she wasn't used to leash walking and we were in an unknown area. You'll have to wait for another day for Lizzie's reveal. ;)
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