This past October, my MIL found what we thought was a lost dog. She dropped him off at our house so we can help find his home. I loved him from the beginning, but I wanted to be careful in proclaiming it in case he had a home looking for him.
With in-person and online found dog postings, a scrounging of hundreds Craigslist and other site missing dog listings, and no chip when we took him to get scanned at the vet, after two weeks passed--we officially adopted the puppy and named him Luca.
The rainbow shining through is from my rainbow kitchen decal, it extends pretty far!
Welcome to the family Luca! The past three months with you have been so special.
All About Luca
Luca is a fast runner, loves his daily walks, and prances around with stuffed animals in his mouth. He is loving and has added a lot of joy to our life.
Our son Jack loves him to pieces and they are often playing together. At night, Luca is often cuddling with him and Chris. Luca loves to be held.
Look at how little he looked when we got him. We think he was maybe three months old at the time.
We got our first two pets before Jack was born, so they were already a few years old before our son came around. Seeing Jack bond with a new pet has been a special experience. Jack says that Luca is his dog since there are three of us and three pets now.
Luca loves to nap on my lap while I work. A lot of my recent fiction release was written while he was with me.
How to Walk Two Dogs At Once
Having two dogs to walk has certainly helped my health. Luca's puppy bladder needs to go out more often, so I've nearly doubled my average steps since October.
Holding two leashes was annoying, especially since luca pulls more than he should. So I went to Amazon and found a leash specifically made for having two dogs. It has only one lead, with a cushioned handle, but then clips on an attachment so you can hold one dog or both at the same time. This has made things so much easier.
As they say, work smarter, not harder.
The harder way:
The smarter way:
It's a lot less stressful and the lead between the two dogs stretches pretty far, so they don't feel too cramped together. Check out that leash here.
Having Older Pets and Younger Pets
I was looking through my old archives and partially drafted posts, with my goal of being consistent with blogging again and putting up content from my previous blogs as well, I found my posts for our two other pets - Mustache and Pokie.
Mustache is now ten years old, with Pokie nine. They both grew a companionship over the years, but now at an older age are fairly set in their ways.
Mustache took PetSmart dog training when he was a puppy, but we fell out of the habit of reinforcing the material over the years. Now that Luca is going to go to training, I'm hopeful Mustache will be reminded and they will follow along to commands together. That will certainly help keep things calmer.
Take a look at Mustache now. He's got these cute white highlights with age.
Mustache has accepted Luca into the pack, though he gets annoyed with how often Luca wants to play, so we occasionally separate them so that Mustache can have a break.
Pokie, on the other hand, hates Luca. She was already pretty reclusive, not coming out until nighttime and wanting to be alone most of the time, but she has intensified that behavior even more. Unfortunately, Pokie had to get surgery around the time we got Luca, so she has had a rough patch. Now three months later, she is starting to act a bit like her old self, but I doubt she and Luca will ever be friends.
We'll see how things go between the three of them as time goes on, but I'm grateful for my three cuties and glad we've found a rhythm together.
Let's celebrate Luca joining our pack by sharing those two posts within this one, showing all the family together.
From the Archive - Adopting Mustache in 2013:
A few days ago, we saved a dog at the shelter. Our lives immediately changed. Suddenly Chris and I had a life to take care of and love. We became fur parents!
Both Chris and I have always grown up with pets in our lives. When we first moved in October it was really sad and depressing not having a little happy dog walking around (we couldn’t have any of the family pets, of course). We felt like something was missing from our lives.
Finally, after waiting two months to get used to the responsibility of being homeowners we took the leap and went to the local shelter.
We adopted this little sweetie, named Batman. We tried working with the name Batman for an hour or so and ended up changing his name to Mustache, it suits him much more. He is part Schnauzer Miniature. They didn’t have info on what else he was mixed with but we are thinking some sort of Terrier.
I have never smiled so much in my entire life. He is so sweet and loving. Every moment of the day is made brighter with him in it. Sure, the training is stressful, but the joy he has brought us has been worth it.
Welcome to the family Mustache!
Our vlog from getting Mustache at the shelter:
Do you have a pet? What’s his or her name?
From the Archive - Adopting Pokiemans in 2014:
It looks like in my archive posts, I only saved the video and the photo, so let me add a bit more in to the history of getting Pokiemans now in 2024.
We adopted Pokie in 2014, naming her after this meme:
Pokie was a cat from my mom's neighborhood, born in a crawlspace under her house. My brother adopted her brother.
I'm so glad for our early years as vloggers because we have all these precious videos to look back on.
Pokie and Mustache were hesitant with each other, but would occasionally sit next to each other and we got this photo from one of those rare occasions.
Pokie in the first week of having her, almost got stuck in the space between the kitchen cabinets and the walls. That was scary. I broke part of my kitchen getting her out!
A few times we thought we lost her, but really she was sleeping around the house and didn't feel like meowing when we were looking for her.
Ever since getting Jack, she has spent most of her days sleeping, and comes out at night to take over the downstairs. It took about five years before she would even let our son touch her. Jack loves her, despite the lack of cuddles.
Her gorgonite-like behavior has only grown more as she has gotten older. Occasionally she pops out to cuddle if we are taking a nap, but she has remained more reclusive. I'm glad we can provide for her a safe space to be her shy self.
Would My Pack Homeward Bound Together?
Probably not, but they still love each other.
(Tell me you remember that movie, it makes me cry 5,000 when watching it. Two movie mentions in one post with the gorgonites from Small Soldiers, that's a rarity.)
I'm so grateful these three animals found their way into our home.
Rebecca