After we brought Arlo home, we started looking into getting a playmate for him. We had no intention of leaving him alone when T went back to work and it didn't seem fair that he would be home on his own once the end of January came. So we looked into adopting from the RSPCA.
We found a beautiful boy that we loved, but due to Arlo's age and lack of shots at that stage the people at the RSPCA couldn't safely say that he would be safe from anything in the meeting areas. Just because they knew the dogs under their care were vaccinated and fine, it didn't mean people with dogs who had brought them in to meet other dogs were as protected. With that knowledge, we decided that despite the fact that we wanted to adopt, we may have to go down a different road to ensure that Arlo got a playmate.
So T started looking of Gumtree for any dogs that needed to be rehomed. We knew that Arlo was going to be good around older dogs. Since about a week after he came home, we had been looking after Eli - T's brother J's dog - and Bolt - J's housemate's dog - while they were moving into a new house. Arlo loved the other dogs and they just let him walk all over him - literally.
After a couple of days of looking, T turned to me one night and showed me a picture of a litter of puppies. They were German Shepherd cross rottweiler/kelpies and there were four in total. One girl was left. They were ready to go home at 8 weeks which was two weeks away. Looking at T's face I knew that he had fallen totally in love.
They were nearly totally black, with touches of tan and I really wish now that I had saved those photos like I had with Arlo, but before I was able to the ad was taken down. T had immediately agreed to take her and just like that we were set to get another puppy, and not a fully grown dog like we had planned.
Over the next two weeks, we discussed names and T kept going back to Daphne. Why? Becuase he still wanted to call Arlo Scooby Doo and what is Scooby without a Daphne. Plus she kind of looked like a redhead in spots.
Soon the day came and we made the half hour drive to pick her up, leaving Arlo at home just to be safe.
Daphne was so little. I had thought Arlo was tiny but she was so little. She had a little bump on the side of her nose and she was just so sweet. And just like T had done for me with Arlo, I did the same with him for Daphne. She became his early Christmas present. The handover was so smooth and we were heading home within 10 minutes of chatting with the owners.
We did make one stop on the way home, and that was to get Daphne a collar and name tag. Just as we had done for Arlo.
Then the moment of truth had arrived: How was Arlo going to react?
He was excited but didn't know how to play with a smaller dog, so that took a little bit of time to work out for him. Luckily, Daphne was smart and she didn't let Arlo get things over her. Within ten minutes we had them outside and Daphne was giving as good as she got to Arlo.
Like Arlo stuck with me, Daphne stuck with T. She has always been his girl. Every chance she gets she snuggles up to him and then just gives me this look. The funny thing is that T was adamant that he wanted to get a male dog and yet this little girl has managed to get him wrapped around her finger. Or paw if you wish.
A lot has changed since we got her, but most of that is the way she looks. She's no longer that mostly black puppy and she's still as smart as the day we got her. Actually, thinking about it, she's a lot smarter. Since we brought her home she's worked out how to open the doors to go outside, which is why the front screen door in particular needs to be locked.
She also no longer has a little bump on her nose. I kind of miss it.
Until next time,
(aka - Sophie)
