Our walking adventures and Brandy.

Not the alcohol.

Yesterday, I went to walk Elka around 1:15 as I had a 2pm meeting and wanted her tired out so she wouldn't be bothersome. We had just gotten out when I spotted a collar-less lab wandering about. It must have been 90+ degrees, but I figured its owner was nearby.

I kept watching it as we walked and there was no-one around, so I started to feel like I need to do something.

We walked back and found the dog in a cul-de-sac and I whistled for her. She came over and was incredibly friendly with Elka and myself. I gave her a treat and then walked back towards the house, whistling whenever she didn't follow and treating her when she did. We got back and I crated Elka then took the dog to the vet to see if she was microchipped.

Nada.

So, I called the shelter. I had two options: keep her and post an ad in the paper, wait 30 days. If no-one claimed her she was mine. But I couldn't get her any treatment until that 30 days was up or I could get sued since she was considered private property.

The other option was to take her to the shelter; they would keep her 3 days, try to find her owner, then could legally release her. I brought here there hoping that the owner would show up, and if not, I would adopt her. I also filled out the application. She was a 6-8 year old dog with some masses in her side and I didn't feel she'd be adopted quickly; she was too sweet and wonderful to let her languish in a shelter.

This morning I got a call that she had, indeed, been claimed.

I'm very relieved. I'm not at all prepared to bring a second dog home, though I'd love one. But I also felt obligated to do the right thing. In this case, her owner did show up and I'm very happy about that.

That was yesterday's adventure.

Now we're off to the dog-park for some exhausting fun.

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Wells Fargo, and an experiment with Elka…

So, when I got my furniture, even though I had the cash for it, I decided to take advantage of their 12 month interest free program. This was backed by Wells Fargo, though I didn't know that at the time.

They first forgot a form at the store that I went back and signed. Then a few days ago I got a call that they needed another form signed, but this time I'd have to go into Wells Fargo Financial to do this. They wanted me to go to the one in Portland and I asked if they could fax the form to the Hillsboro branch and I'd pop in there and sign it.

Well, instead of faxing it, apparently the lady decided to chauffeur it over and I had a 3pm appointment to meet with her. Thinking this would take all of 20 minutes, I decided to let Elka have the run of the bedroom as an experiment. More on this later.

I get there at 2:58, perfect. At 3:20 I leave, with no sign of the lady there. I told them I could no longer wait, had to get back to work and puppy, and left. I got back, pulled into the garage, opened the door to the house...

and 'lo and behold, PUPPY!!!!!!!!

Now, I expected she'd have gone to sleep in her crate, safe and sound. Instead, I find her treat bag on the floor, deliciously eaten (no biggie, wasn't a lot of treats in there) and a small coke bottle on the floor. I walk to the bedroom, peering in the two extra bedrooms for bathroom errors, and nothing. Get to my bedroom and giggle hysterically. The baby gate is a tension mounted gate - not a wooden one, but solid, and I had it in there firmly. She knocked it right the heck out. She even had the gall to bring her toys out with her, which is apparently why my furniture is not destroyed, so that's ok too.

In any case, I thought it'd be nice for her to be in the gated room so that she could see out. Next time, it'll be with the door shut. That said, I think she may actually be fairly ok for brief times with full house access. I haven't the conviction to actually allow her that on purpose quite yet, though. One fit of boredom.... or a cat running past, could be a disaster. Maybe after the dog park when she's exhausted.

Anyway, at this point I feel I should just go to Dania and pay for the stuff in cash, and cancel the financing. Wells Fargo has killed their chances of having me as any type of customer beyond this, in any case, as I was quite peeved to be there waiting for 20 minutes.

But, coming from all of that? I had my first door-puppy greeting in a long, long time. Granted, it was unexpected, but it is, nevertheless, a wonderful thing to come home to so much love.

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Puppy = weight loss.

So, last night right before bed, on a whim, I weighed myself. I had taken off 9lbs. Since I normally do this in the morning, I tried again this morning. 13lbs down from last time I weight myself - which was months and months ago.

I haven't changed my eating habits unfortunately, but I have changed my activity levels, due to the puppy. Good stuff.

My new bed and bedside tables were delivered today, you can see them at Flickr. They're ginormous, seriously. Big. They make that huge room look small, or at least normal sized. I need a step-ladder to get into bed.

Speaking of which, I'm going to get a comforter set appropriate to my gorgeous new bed. I've never gotten a nice comforter set before...

It's Friday afternoon. Elka and I will go to the dog park this evening, and I'll get some much needed rest. I've been so tired I haven't used the hot tub in two whole days. Meh!!

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Hondo Dog Park

So, since I got Elka I found out about Hondo Dog Park. I had been eagerly awaiting Elka's third set of vaccinations to go. Well, we've been there twice now (twice today) and it is everything that I dreamt it could be, and then some.

The first time was mid-afternoon, and there were 5 or 6 dogs there. Elka had a great time playing with a pit bull puppy and some others. This evening we went and there were over 20 dogs there. Including everything from a 6 week old puppy and upwards. There were two huskies and a malamute there. I don't see any resemblance between Elka and the huskies, either physical or temperament. But we'll see - she did gravitate to them (as did I) and had a great time playing. She also played for awhile with a golden retriever, which I had hoped would be my next dog come next summer.

She and I also went on two hour+ long walks today, so we're both pretty exhausted. Best Buy was here for a few hours, fixing up my home theatre, including hooking up two outdoor speakers. They'll be back in a few weeks to install in-wall rear speakers. Things are looking much better and really coming together.

I also joined the HOA, to help with the architectural approvals. We met last night and that was awesome, a great group of people that live right here in my neighborhood. I've met a lot of my neighbors while out walking Elka, as well, including some great folks in the neighborhood over (Orenco station). I'm happier and happier that I really pushed to be in this neighborhood, and was able to pay the premium for it. In the next few weeks I'll have a new fence (one side, anyway), and over the summer, new siding and windows. Then I'll have one major project: the master bathroom.

There's about 50 million other projects, but those are the the main 4 right now. Oh, those and new appliances for the kitchen.

Exciting times. A new house, a new puppy, the cats are doing great and I'm about 10x more active - both socially and physically - than I have been in years.

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She ain’t no german shepherd.

A few weeks ago I had blood drawn from Elka to test her DNA and see what breeds she had.

The shelter had marked her "German Shepherd mix" - everyone agreed, from her looks, that she had some shepherd.

Not even a trace.

She is primarily Siberian Husky (significant amount), then some English Cocker Spaniel (some) (!?!?!?!), then some Alaskaman Malamute and Rottweiler (traces).

So, this is how it broke down on the DNA analysis:

• You should see traits from Siberian Husky.
• You may see traits from English Cocker Spaniel.
• There is a chance of seeing traits from Alaskan Malamute and Rottweiler

Well, she most likely will not be much of a guard dog, she'll happily greet strangers and love them. She'll also have a strong prey drive. Now, I've done a lot of research and many people have happily raised pure-bred huskies with cats and they managed to be best friends. But huskies are predators of small animals. I don't feel a reason to worry about Elka - she's very, very gentle with the cats, though she wants to play with them. The only issue I do see if that she chases them. However, I've been at the end of the chase and she always stops and stops - she has never put her teeth on the cats.

Now - does that mean she's safe for all cats? No. A pup raised around cats may be ok, especially with the pack; but not ok with strange cats.

Huskies are also more independent (like Odin was) and more stubborn; and they're never off-leash dogs since they're runners. Her mix will definitely speak to how she gets trained, and I'll need to amend my own thinking on that a bit. But she's doing extraordinarily well to be honest, and I think she's just perfect.

The only real hitch this puts in my plans is that I expected her to become protective as she got older. Then next summer, I was going to get a golden retriever. However, I do feel more comfortable with a dog that has some guarding instinct, so the next dog probably will not be a golden, but will be shepherd or other working dog of some sort, with a history of guardianship. But, we'll see - perhaps that Rottweiler in her will come out if she suspects danger, eh?

I always wanted a husky but wouldn't have chosen one, due to the cats. However, she's doing great with the cats, and I'm confident that I can get her to be close to perfect (a running cat will likely always get chased, unfortunately, but the cats have been easily able to handle themselves).

Adventures ahead, eh?

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