Here's an image of the last dog I had...
His name was Loki...bit of a mixture of a dog, my mother found him abandoned and we had him for a total of around 8-9 years. Named Loki.
As you'll see from the pics he wasn't exactly a young dog anymore...really great animal though, responded to language without gesture, very smart, had a great personality and liked everyone. Protected smaller animals, and soft toys.
He and I just had a very close connection.
So for anyone who hasn't heard the story already, we sent him to my mothers place so that he could get 6 months to a year of running around the countryside, with other dogs etc, before he got any older and came back to us.
She'd moved there not so long before, relatively rural place...we all thought it was a good idea, but nobody could have known someone has serial baited 40+ animals around there over the four or five years prior, unfortunately, Loki fell victim to this.
I can't say how much this threw me, I've had and lost pets before but nothing in this manner and I hadn't had such a close friendship with any of my animals before, it honestly felt more like losing a brother. This happened over four years ago now, and it's still pretty raw...I've wanted to get another dog because I miss the connection so much, having been with large dogs all my life, then into this period of having no dogs at all...but it's been difficult, I haven't known truly how I'll treat them, I don't want to do nothing but compare, and for one reason or another haven't been able to make the decision to actually pick one up.
What happened to Loki was actually a bit of a catalyst event that's steered me on the study/career path I want to go with at the moment.
So, back at my mothers place...some old guy has a bad stroke...he can still talk and all but movement = not great. He had a female staffordshire terrier, which she thought to take in for him.
She has a large (fed on a larger dogs milk and got a bit...mutant) "smoothe" fox terrier.
Turns out they're both un-desexed and the female has become pregnant.
It would be her third pregnancy so it should go pretty smoothely for her.
I've given what advice I can based on my studies and the information I had on hand...it would appear she is between 6 and 7 weeks in at the moment.
That's a couple of weeks to go, maybe 3 tops.
I have said that I'd like a boy, it just felt as though...I don't know, fates kind of conspired in a funny way to bring new life into the house my dog died in...I love staffys as they're always pretty sweet and human friendly, and the fox terrier is a pretty smart little fellow, I think together they will make a good combination.
Now the mandatory amount of time you would have to wait to SELL these dogs as a shop etc is 6 weeks from birth - I have found during my studies that the actual reason for this is that it's based on an average estimate of when the "slowest" kind of dogs will be able to eat/survive on their own.
Being as it is that I would like to properly socialise him from a young age (I have cats and rats) I will be seeing if it's a possibility to grab him at 4.5 weeks instead which isn't a huge gap and things should be ready by then....if not though, I will wait....
Will be taking him to a dog park regularly, and a long walk every night.
So more than likely within 2 months I'll have a new dog.
I found a picture, took a bit of searching though...it's almost like this cross breed seldom exists or something, but here it is:
http://www.petrescue.com.au/view/26336
Not a bad looking dog, and seems to have taken on more staffy attributes.
Should be a very energetic little guy...good, will get me fit again...
Nervous about this I have to say, but yeah, it's something I've been missing like a part of myself pretty badly since the last one...
Anyways, that's me done.
- B.