Adoption is a wonderful thing...

Our Shepherd/Husky female, Kelsey, is 9 years old. We adopted her when she was a baby puppy. My Border Collie, Sydney, is 13 years old now....we got her when she was a puppy as well. Syd doesn't really get around much anymore. She's in her late stages I feel. She doesn't do anything but lay around all day and go out to do her business. She struggles to get up and has a rough time usually getting up the stairs. We hope that as the time changes and the weather gets better we can get her out on short regular walks to help, but inevitably her purebred BC lifespan is nearing the end. *sniff, sniff*

We've also talked about when we felt Autumn was "ready", we'd get another puppy. Well, as it so happens, Kelsey has been showing behaviour that she really needs a 'buddy' that she can play with and all that since Syd isn't hardly active anymore.

So here it is last Sunday and we decide to go to one of Denver's large animal shelters just to see if there was a potential "new member of our family". After looking around, finding a husky pup that as it turned out wasn't ready for a home yet (G was alittle sad) we decided that we wanted to meet this....ready?! Mastiff/SharPei mix. They said he's 10 months old, very sweet, but they only had him for a week from another shelter. He looked to be a pretty nice looking and a mild mannered boy. We went into one of the 'visiting rooms' and waited for the girl to bring him in. A few minutes later she walks in with him. Autumn's eyes got bigger and she goes "doggie!" The dog came right over to her and gave her a lick on the cheek. She hugged on him...even tugged on his tail a bit. He just circled around the room sniffing at us pausing long enough to occasionally give Autumn a lick. We knew then and there he was the one. He had to be ummmm 'fixed' and all that so we had to wait until Monday evening to bring him home.

We asked Autumn what she wanted to call him. I asked..."Grover? Oscar? he kind of looks like an Oscar..." Autumn just says..."ummm no....Cookie Monster!" "no Autumn I don't think we should call him Cookie Monster." G spoke up and said she liked the name Jack....she thought that fit well. The two of us thought about it...decided a character to reference with his name, and settled on Jack. Monday as we were picking him up, Autumn said "me no like Jack." "Jack the dog or the name Jack?" "name." Autumn replies. "....well what would you want to call him?" "ummm Kittie!" she says. "okay, that's not a boy dog's name sweetie. How about mama and daddy call him Jack and you call him whatever you'd like?" "okay...."

So when the guy brings him out for us, Autumn says..."Jack! 'mere Jack!" very nice.

So. Here we are with Jack. Captain Jack Barkness. We referenced a character from the TV series Torchwood; Captain Jack Harkness, as he's the main character. The character was also a part of Doctor Who (new series obviously) So, if anyone's seen the show...there you have it. For anyone who hasn't, Torchwood is kind of a dark, adult version of X-Files meets Doctor Who. Capt. Jack is the main character who's very handsome, dashing, and runs the organisation. He seems cold and tough, but he's very caring, protective, and wants to do what's right. A fitting reference for our Jack who absolutely adores Autumn and is very gentle and patient with her.

Kelsey already has shown signs of perking up and she seems to really enjoy the playmate she has now. Sydney is even letting him hang around her occasionally. And mama and daddy feel great that we've adopted a wonderful dog who's going to benefit from all the love and care that our family....especially Autumn, will give him. :)