Two weeks ago, our missing cat, Moonpie turned up. Dead. An alligator got him and he was mostly buried out in the swamp behind the house.
It’s taking me awhile to get over it, 'cos he was SUCH a sweet cat, and it came out of the blue.
But we have been discussing getting a dog for awhile; swampwife really wants one–but I’m not a dog person. Once we lost Moop, I realised that my stepdaughter, who really wants a dog will end up getting one, even though I thought we should wait until we buy a house. I wasn’t jazzed about the idea, but totally willing to go along with it. I like individual dogs, but not the species as a whole. And the rest of the family wanted one, so I wasn’t going to be a dick and veto the idea.
But now we are getting Neptune (her name is going to change). She’s a shelter dog, and we can’t decide if she’s a border collie or an Australian Shepherd mix, since we’ve seen examples of both breeds who look just like her. (Any insight by dopers would be useful).
I’m in love.
She’s as sweet as you could hope for, obviously very intelligent, and is great with other dogs and even cats! the shelter hadn’t checked out how she is with cats, but we took her into a meet-and-greet with a kitten–in tightly* controlled circumstances-- and she looked at the kitty, sniffed him, and then just looked up at me with a “okay, that’s a cat. I’m supposed to do something about it?” look on her face. Huge relief, since we still have 3 other cats (Marbles,Zelda and Coppelia (photo not available–she’s a generic-looking black cat), all of whom are used to dogs in our neighborhood (in fact, Coppelia has been known to jump a pit bull’s face). If she looked like she’d eat them, that would be a deal-breaker.
I pick her up from the vet tomorrow, and am coming out of my skin with anticipation!
The people at the shelter say she’s 3 years…but then, they also say she’s a German Shepherd/Chow mix. I hope they’re wrong about her not being spayed, too!
She’s a gorgeous dog! Be warned, though, if she is at all Aussie or Border Collie, she will probably be very high energy and will need a lot of exercise and a “job” suited to her breed. (As an example, our lab regards his “job” as a session retrieving his Kong – every single day, no matter what other exercise he gets, he has to chase that silly Kong, even if only a few times, to feel like his life is complete.) So be prepared to keep her very busy! Agility is especially popular with those breeds, and fun for the people, too!
Thanks for the tips on the breed–I haven’t had a dog in my home for 25 years!
We have a great book on Aussies, and are religious Dog Whisperer watchers (not that those are decent substitutions for experience).
She is an extremely mellow dog, and on Sunday when we had a meet & greet with the kids (they got along great, even my stepson who is all but completely over some early childhood dog trauma), we tried to test out her herding instincts–she didn’t really bother to chase, but once she’s settled, that may change.
I’m not worried about the cats–they can hold their own. Even Zelda, who was declawed (before we got her) has a tail like a billy club.
She’s only had her name for about a month, and doesn’t respond to it. Coppelia’s brother is named Poseidon, so calling her Neptune would, even if it fit her, be a little weird. We’re leaning toward Tikva or Dodie. But the name is up to Swampwife.
Sorry to hear of your loss but congrats on the dog! Mr. Chuks and the kids got me a new dog for Mother’s Day after losing my dog only a couple of weeks before. Molly is a Border Collie and looks a lot like Neptune. She is high energy and she plays well with the cats and the kids. We haven’t found her job yet, her favorite thing to do right now is run off leash for as long as we’ll let her. Teaching her commands has been pretty easy so far. She really seems to understand and learn quicker than any other dog I’ve had. Good luck with your new addition!
She is cute! I would guess Aussie over BC but that may be a personal bias. Good luck and check out www.aussierescue.org for some great info on the breed.