Monday, June 7, 2004

The beginning of the madness

The date of this post is significant.  This was the day we lost our German Shepherd, Justice, to what we found out was cancer.  She showed now outward signs of problems until she fainted one day due to lack of oxygen.  She had lung mets, and 2 weeks after we found out, she passed away in her sleep.  She was 11 years old and Tim's best pal.

Tim missed Justice terribly and it didn't take long for him to decide that he couldn't live in such a quiet house. We started making plans to get another dog.  He wanted to get another German Shepherd, I said fine.

Then,  it a moment of insanity:  "Why don't we get two?"
Tim: "You sure?"
Kim: "Yes, same age, they can grow up together"

And so it began, I had been doing research of breeds and I just kept coming back to the Alaskan Malamute, such beauty, such intelligence....and as I was about to find out, a whole lotta independence!

As we excitedly shared our plans with people, everybody just looked at us as we were nuts.  Our vets and other animal handlers were saying, don't get two female dogs the same age, they'll kill each other.  You will have to take a lot of work with them.

I started getting a foreboding feeling that we just screwed up big time.

As it turns out, it wasn't always easy, it wasn't always fun, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

So here the adventure begins.......