What's interesting to me is that everybody who saw Kirby and I together already knew that he would be mine. Before I had even thought about adopting him.
The decision was an emotional one. I had had a long conversation with Red about adopting him. He knew the day I brought him home that I wanted to keep him. And even though he wasn't thrilled about the idea, he told me I could have him. It meant so much to me that he said yes regardless of his feelings that I emailed the rescue and told her that we would in fact not be adopting Kirby, but that we would continue to foster him until a home was found. I love Red more than anything and he was selfless enough to want my happiness over his own feelings. It didn't feel right not to extend the same courtesy back to him. I would find another dog at another time, when we were both ready.
When Red found out that I had declined the adoption, he told me that I had to adopt him. It was an intensly emotional adoption. But I couldn't be happier. Kirby has fit in here since the moment he stepped into this house. I haven't had a feeling about a dog since Frankie first arrived over a year ago. I had a feeling about Kirby.
So I am happy to introduce to you our newest baby.
He is the spitting image of Frankie. Just a different color. He's absolutely beautiful. His pretty gold eyebrows match the color of his eyes and make him look a little obnoxious at times. I love it.
This addition effectively ends my rescue career. There is no room to foster dogs now that we have three. Deep in my heart, while I love rescue and take pride in all I accomplished in the three years we were involved in rescue, I knew that something was changing. My heart wasn't in it once I began dog sports. I realize now that I want to focus my energies on my own dogs. I now have two young Aussies who both need consistant, daily training and exercise and stimulation. Frankie has only just begun, and Kirby needs to start from scratch basically. I have a lot of work ahead of me to keep this a happy household, and I wouldn't be able to put enough into rescue to keep everything up. But this is good for me. And it's good for our pack. It's hard to keep things on an even keel when you constantly have new dogs coming and going. The dynamics were ever changing and its hard one both human and animal to not have that pack consistancy.
Kirby is a perfect match for our current pack. He still needs some work, though. Some training and trust building and drive building. Plus he's only 10 months old. He's a baby yet.
And really, who is going to notice that he chews on his own feet?
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