meet...

...Vahshi, our new dog.

He's dog A.

Vahshi is an Afghan name which apparently means 'untamed'. His owner, an Afghani man, recently got married and moved into an apartment - I'm not sure if it was the apartment or the new bride that meant Vahshi had to be surrendered.

We can tell already that Vahshi has been very well brought up. He's very compliant. He found his own way into this basket soon after arriving home and has spent most of the evening there since.

On the surrender form, it said that Vahshi had never met a cat. Well, now he's met our two. The amusing thing is that he looks so much like Lottie that the cats clearly thought he was her and didn't run away (as they do whenever a strange dog comes to visit). His nose has been working overtime, trying to work out what these creatures are. I'm sure they'll get along fine.

All week I've been in a slightly anxious state, unable to decide which dog to take and feeling guilty in relation to dog B. In fact when I finally rang them to say we weren't going to take B, I almost started crying on the phone. I think some of this is emotion left over from Harry's death - it still feels painful to me that I couldn't prevent him from dying or from getting sick in the first place. So I wanted to 'save' B, even though I knew I didn't want to deal with a difficult dog - and there was something not quite right about the scenario he was coming from.

Now that we have Vahshi, I know I made the right decision. Of course, bringing him home has also brought up feelings about Harry - and some of those are mixed feelings. I can't help but point out to co-parent how wonderful it is that Vahshi doesn't do the things Harry did - there's no barking, no manic attempts to be in our laps and faces, no insistence on being first out of the car and first in the door, no stealing of Lottie's food.  It makes me realise with even greater emphasis what a troubled soul Harry was - but we loved him and we miss him.

I already know that I'm going to love Vahshi a great deal too.

Comments

[Kay]

I know what you mean about pointing out the absent irritations - we do that a lot with our cat who died just before Christmas. Our remaining cat is so much easier to be with than he was - but we miss him all the same.

[webfrau]

Congratulations on your new friend. I do hope he doesn't live up to his name - it doesn't sound like it.

[Valerie]

Wow, congrats!! Welcome Vahshi!!

I'm curious if Lottie and Harry arrived in your household with those names, or if you named them. Is Vahshi going to continue to be named Vahshi?

[suzoz]

Lottie came off the street - her story is here:
http://susoz.typepad.com/personal_political/2005/09/old_girl.html
and co-parent named her while I was interstate. Strangely, the name she has was one of my very favourites, though I don't think we'd ever discussed that.
Harry came with his name and even though I don't much like the name, it seemed to suit him so we stuck with it. That was a case where I loved the name on him, he seemed such a Harry, yet I still don't like it on humans (it's becoming a very popular child's name here.)
We discussed whether or not to change Vahshi's name - co-parent doesn't like it. We canvassed other names which have similar sounds in them - Archie and Darcy being two of them - but O and I both like Vahshi and I like the idea of maintaining a link to his past. So we're sticking with it.
Our animals are the only ones who go by their real names in this blog ;-)
Vahshi is continuing with his wonderful behaviour - he's very easy and very cute to have around.

[laura]

Lovely. He looks like a nice dog.

[morgan]

Agreed - looks lovely!

[tigtog]

He's such a brindled sweetie. I'm sure you'll all love each other just fine.

[Helen]

I had the same dilemma when we got our beautiful Maggie. she was always going to be my daughter's dog, so it was up to daughter to choose and she made the absolute right choice. But there was a very nice little foxie cross - when I say little, I mean crossed with something larger, so a bit bigger than toy size.
I still regret not getting both of them. Given that Mags was such a basket case at first, he would have been a good influence.
He was 5. I hope he went to a good home.

[Kate]

Oh Vahshi looks like a lovely dog! I have a big soft spot for brindle dogs.

I can understand your anxiety -- we'd like to get a second dog but I'm stricken with guilt about whichever option we choose. Rescue dog? But what if it's a 'problem' dog and we can't cope? Another purebred puppy? But think of the rescue dogs we could help? And should we even get another dog given that we're only renting? And do I want to go through all that training and everything being chewed again now that my dog finally seems to be settling down?

And so on. I really am an overthinker...

[Liz]

Welcome Vahshi!!! He looks lovely. What a great name! I hope you have many happy years ahead with him.

(I am having a wave of dog envy after reading about his arrival...was brought up in a golden retriever household but we just don't have room where we live now...sniff!)