Love, Loss, and Curly Tailed Royalty

   After we sent Ivan back to the angels on March 10, we walked from room to room looking at empty little dog beds and crying until we decided our broken hearts needed a change.
   We had all the flooring and carpet ripped out of the first floor and replaced with durable easy to clean tile. Having half our furniture moved to the garage and our kitchen cabinets covered with plastic provided a welcome distraction.
    We gave away Ivan’s treats. We washed dog beds and packed away little dog coats. I finally stopped filling the upstairs water dish. We will always love Ivan and Dasa, but our home seemed so empty. The silence was deafening.

   Eric said the right dog always comes to us, the one we are meant to have. We believe they’ve all been heaven sent. We were not looking; we were simply pining. And then there she was. Something told us to ask about a tiny girl.
   Much to our delight, we were approved to adopt, and off we went to pick her up at the foster mom’s house. (There should be national holidays dedicated to foster parents. BRAT has some of the best.)   

 

 
       Our tiny Tiegan is enchanting. Her name means Little Princess in the Big Valley. However, we live in the Midwest with no valleys on hand, so we decided Tiegan is the Little Princess on the Prairie. She’s 16 months old and we are her fifth home. She is wonderful. We were Ivan’s fourth home, and he came to us as an amazing, exuberant, energetic two-year-old basenji boy. It’s a similar situation with our beautiful girl. If you have not done your research and do not know what to expect, adding a basenji to your family can be a disaster, especially for the basenji. Tiegan is really quite well-behaved. She is also a door-bolter, a high energy, high prey drive typical basenji youngster. We think she’s a treasure. She is cute, snuggly, sweet, and social. Everything she does is clever and amazing.

 

 

   When we say she’s our tiny girl, we do mean tiny.  She was a 15-lb sprite when we brought her home. (Eric said my purse weighs more than she does.) Tiegan has an excellent appetite so we are making progress in our quest to reach the 18 pounds our vet recommended at our wellness visit. 

We feel so extraordinarily blessed with sweet Tiegan. Our hearts are smiling once again.