Hello Everyone!
Newbie to this forum. BTW-Love all the husky photos! Just want to share a story on how my boyfriend and I came across our wonderful husky with a little extra back story prior to our husky.
I own a small 13 lb Pekingese/Cairn terrier mix named Kuky (pronounce like Cookie). I had her since she was 4 months old. She is currently 15 years old and still doing wonderful with some help of some arthritis meds. I recently moved in with my BF near end of April and was not planning on having another dog after anything happens to Kuky (knock on wood) because I wanted to do more traveling. Wasn't thinking of getting another dog until probably retirement. (I am only 37). Well...let's just say that things didn't really happen that way.
One day my BF comes home and wanted to tell me about how he met this awesome husky at the Vape store around the corner near our apartment. She was just chilling with the owner there and was very mellow. Off leash while the door was wide open. He asked me if I ever saw a red Husky before and I told him I have only seen the grey and white ones. And I have always love how gorgeous they look. He told me that the husky was going to be there again the next day. so the next day came around and we needed to walk across the street to get groceries and ended up going to the Vape store before doing so. Got to meet Dakota and she definitely was just chilling. She was so mellow and just love the fact that we were petting her. We were just talking to the owner and all of a sudden he asks us if we wanted her. We were like "WTH"? So from there, the owner told us her full story. Apparently he has been fostering her for the past 4 months. His friend's family adopted her from the ASPCA. They told him that she was almost going to get euthanize if they didn't adopt her. Unfortunately, as soon as they took Dakota home, she went after their family cat and accidentally broke the cat's jaw. Emergency vet they went which cost them $1,500. They realize once that happened, they could not keep her. Obviously they did not do their homework with Huskies prey drive. The daughter asked the friend (foster parent) to watch Dakota while she looked for her own place so that she can keep Dakota. She said about a few weeks. A few weeks become 4 months and the foster parent's dad was not happy. He did not want the dog to be around. And if he wasn't able to find a new home for Dakota soon then he would have to drop her off at the shelter again. He also told us that there was someone who was suppose to take her that same day we saw her but they cancelled on him. We just happen to come by to see how cool she was.
After hearing the whole story, my BF and I said that we would think about it. We walked to the grocery store and discussed more. But we decided that we wouldn't want her to go back to the pound so we decided to test her out. We came back to him after grocery shopping and told him that we will test her out for a few hours at our house. And if anything goes wrong, the store was just around the corner. The day we took her home, she had separation anxiety and was not liking it. She couldn't get comfortable. After a few hours, I had to take my dog out to go to the bathroom and she happen to squeeze out to the door. It freaked us out because we didn't know if she knew where to go. She headed back to the Vape store. So that was one day of mishap. So then we talked to the foster parent again and ask him if he could bring her back to our place the next day and and be around her for a few hours to let her know that she was in a safe environment. Once that works out, we were going to keep her overnight.
Let's just say that it worked out better and she got comfortable pretty fast. She belly upped while sleeping which was a sign of trust and comfort. So that day, we decided that the last step to take was to get her checked up medically to make sure she had no major medical issue just in case. Luckily it checked out and we told him that we will take her and told him he is free to visit anytime. So since then, we have had her for 4 months already.
We were also told that Dakota was 2 years old beginning of this year. But after requesting for documents from the original owner with her microchip info which took forever like 2 months after we took her, we found out that she was only 1 year at the beginning of the year. She is currently 1yr 8 months. Born 12/15/15. That's a pretty big difference in age if we didn't ask for her paperwork.
It's been a lot of fun with her. We shorten her name calling to "Kota" to make it easier. And let's just say that she has escaped her kennel twice (not sure how when there are locks) and also she escaped my sister's 8 foot fence when I went to go have lunch with family. We came home and she was sitting in front of the garage door. That was her first time there so I am glad she stuck around and not disappear on us.
She is one mellow dog. Seems to be very well trained before we even got her. We have taken her to a dog beach off leash and I even had her off leash on trails. She happens to not run far and always wants to make sure I am in her sight.
At the beginning, she wanted to play with Kuky but Kuky screamed like she was dying even though Kota was not attacking. Kuky wasn't use to big dogs doing that to her. We had to train her that she has to play gentle or not play at all. She has been doing so good with not playing with my older dog and actually protects her at the dog park. Hope my profile picture says it all. That is Kota and Kuky side by side. Just a little forcing of putting them together but they stayed put.
On to more adventures with Kota and Kuky!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful day and didn't get too bored of my long story. P.S....My sister just adopted an 8 month husky about 1 month ago too. This is her first dog ever and OMG, she is having all the typical husky owner issue. I have to admit, we are so lucky that Kota is so mellow and chill!!