Sage our wise old girl, husky/chow cross was an only dog until one day I met Niko at the SPCA and knew he was meant to be part of our family.
He and Sage truly loved each other and he looked to her for all guidance.
When she passed away at 17 yrs old, last October, Niko became lost and more and more depressed.
It was heart breaking to watch.
We had not considered a second dog, we were going to have a smaller furry family.....but.......
he just looked so sad unless he had company or a dog play date.
Therefore we started looking at rescues and getting used to the idea of another dog in our hearts and home.
It took a while to decide what type of dog this time. Two northern dogs in our house is A LOT of dog, and the poor cats and..and.....and.... so we considered a medium size breed. But which one?
We looked at rescues for a long time until one day we saw a little face looking at us from http://www.mosaicrescue.ca/index.htm.
A beagle- a bit of a hero- and she spoke to us. ( look at 'Whitney' in happy endings, that's our girl )
We began the process by sending in an application and arranging a home visit with the rescue.
I researched all aspects of the breed and the biggest thing I kept hearing- barking/howling and never let them off a leash.
That was a big deal for us, never?
The dream of watching two dogs flying down the beach together faded as we looked at other dog possibilities, but it always came back to this beagle who had our hearts.
We realized that running beach idea was possible..... a long leash it would be.
Whitney came for a meeting on Thursday, and it was love.
Friday she came to stay forever. Within an hour of being here she crashed on the couch and woke up, knowing she was home.
Daiv got the name game for her......and before we knew it Miss Saffron Monsoon aka 'Saffi' had wriggled her way into our hearts, onto Niko's paws, in his and our beds and we have not looked back. Almost immediately Niko's ears went back up from the depressed state they had been in and now he is trying to figure out how to be a big brother and give her guidance. A role he is not accustomed to but one he is learning.
Saffi is an absolute delight. She has an old wise face that breaks into youthful goofiness when she and Niko are playing and is the easiest dog to bring into our home I could have imagined.
Even the cats are chill with her and were from day one as evidenced by the first night on our bed with Saffi, Niko and Nessa the cat, curled up watching tv with us
Did you know that beagles are THE MOST EXPERIMENTED ON DOG IN LABS and even in vet schools for study?
Saving a beagle is a really important thing to do in our society these days.
Please read more about the use of beagles in labs here http://www.beaglefreedomproject.org/
There are some amazing people working to change this and Saffi will be a spokesperson for all beagles, blowing the whistle on this horrific practice and shining a light in dark places for animals.
There will be future Saffi and the furries, updates, but for now I will simply end this by saying we can't believe it has only been a week. it feels like she has always been home with us.
And the barking we were mildly concerned with? Nothing....barely a woof, and she stops when you simply say ' hush" She is an awesome dog and she and Niko are becoming fast friends.
