Ahsoka

2011-05-12T10:16:00.000+10:00

In the car on the way home - she was a little scared

She sat in front of the mirror when we got home - I think she missed her sisters and it made her feel better seeing "another" dog.

Yum! With her new harness

The First Day

2011-05-12T09:56:00.000+10:00

On the Saturday morning that we were supposed to pick up our puppy, my son Sam walked into my bedroom, saying “Wake up Mum, we're picking up the dog today”. He'd been counting down the number of sleeps until we could get our dog. So after getting ready, we went to pick her up.

After getting lost along the way and missing a right turn we were supposed to take, we finally got there. There were only 5 pups left from the original 8. Joanne, the Alaskan Malamute breeder explained that one of the 2 male pups had unfortunately died. Such sad news because he was a sweet little one. The other boy pup and another girl had already been collected. There were 2 beautiful soft coats, but we had already vetoed picking one of them as we didn't think we could handle the shedding. They were absolutely gorgeous though. 2 little fat balls of fluff and they waddled when they walked! Sooo cute.

We were drawn to 2 girls – the ones that we had looked at during our first visit. One was “Beasty”, the biggest of the litter, and one other that seemed to be a gentle girl. My husband Rob picked up “Beasty” on our first visit and she was quite content to sit in his arms while the other one wiggled to be put down. This time, it was the other way around and “Beasty” was the one that didn't want to settle. We were gearing towards the other puppy, but when I walked into Joanne's house, “Beasty” was following us around. It was a hard decision to pick between the two and if we could afford to take both, we would have. Joanne told us to call them and she who would come to us. “Beasty” came running so in the end, she made the decision for us.

After filling out the paperwork and saying goodbye, we went home. We kept calling Ahsoka by her name throughout the trip so that she could get used to it and so we could see if she liked it. She sat on the floor in the front seat and Rob and I were reminded of the first time that we took his first Malamute home Lady and she sat in the same spot. It made us a little sad to remember that she wasn't around anymore but happy at the same time that we now have another dog that we could love as much as we loved her.

Ahsoka was a little scared, I forgot to ask Joanne if she had ever been in a car before but thankfully there were no major dramas. When we got home, we showed her around the house and let her sniff around her new home, all the while calling her Ahsoka. I think at this stage she knew that it was her name as she would stop and look at whoever was calling her. While Rob went out, Sam and I tried to play with her but she sniffed around some more, found a nice spot under the dining table and promptly went to sleep. Nice.

We had 3 accidents that day in the house. No poops, thank goodness. We ended up leaving the mop and bucket out for easy access in case there were more. She slept for most of the day and didn't play much, a bit of an anticlimax to the build up of excitement in the days before we got her.

To try and prevent her from crying that night, Rob made her a nice cushy bed from our old couch so she'd be comfortable. We also stayed with her outside until she fell asleep but she still howled all night. Thankfully it was a Saturday. We took turns getting up to try and calm her down. Finally, she either stopped howling or we were just too tired to hear her anymore and we fell asleep at around 2am only to be woken up again at 5.30 to begin another day.

What's in a Name?

2011-05-09T11:53:00.001+10:00

In the car on the way home on the 23rd of April after visiting the Alaskan Malamute breeder to see the litter with my husband, my son and my mother-in-law we threw around some ideas for names for our pup. Here is a list of some of the names we came up with:

* Katara (from Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoons)
* Peach
* Titan
* Ahsoka (from the animated Star Wars series)
* Cindy

In the end, we went with the name Ahsoka. Sam, my son, is obsessed with Star Wars and that's where the name came from. Since she's going to be "his" dog, we thought it would be ideal. Also, it had a certain "arctic" feel to it, and since the Alaskan Malamute has an arctic heritage it was our favourite.

With that said, we hoped the pup would like her name.

When naming your pet, how did you decide on the name? Did you pick a name before even seeing the dog or did you pick the name to suit the dog's personality?

My Alaskan Malamute Doggy Diary

Ahsoka

The First Day

What's in a Name?