It was shortly after we lost our beautiful Jake. I was thinking of him and Googling images of his breed. Jake was a Utonagon, a relatively new breed of dog, bred to look like the Canadian Timber wolf. We had got him from a rescue centre as a companion for our Border Collie, Moss.
Sadly we lost Jake at only 8 years old. (Read his story HERE)
This time we were positive! We were NOT getting another dog! Losing one is heart-breaking, the thought that one day we were going to go through all that again with our lovely Border Collie Ollie reduced me to tears as it was. I certainly didn’t want another dog to put us through all that heartache again.
Whilst Googling and reading up about Jake’s breed, reminiscing and remembering how wonderful he was, I saw this photograph of a beautiful Northern Inuit dog. (After reading up on Jake’s breed history I had learned that Northern Inuits and Utonagans were in fact the same breed of dog….Lots of controversy surrounding the breed(s) (Click here to read the full breed history). The dog in the image was absolutely beautiful, she stood out amongst all the other images. She looked very much like Jake, but instead of being brown and black like he was, this dog was white and grey, almost like a negative image of Jake. I clicked on her picture to read up more about this stunning dog. I was taken straight to an animal rescue website. This dog was up for re-homing in my area! I got so excited when I read up on her history, she was perfect! It was like she was meant to be ours! Like I was meant to see her picture! But then I remembered the conversation my husband Paul and I had the night before about NEVER getting another dog! I decided to email Paul all her details and her picture anyway.
Our beautiful Jake
When Paul returned home from work I told him I had emailed him some details about a dog that was up for re-homing, he said “No! Julia! We are NOT getting another dog”
I just said “Paul, open the email! It’s meant to be!”
His immediate reaction, after reluctantly reading the email, was…”Phone them first thing in the morning! She is beautiful!”
Needless to say the first thing I did in the morning was phone the animal rescue centre and left a message on their answering machine, leaving them my email address and other contact details, saying I was very interested in homing this dog. I waited eagerly for a reply.
Two very long hours past and then I got an email saying that the dog in question had already been reserved, all that was left was the home check, subject to that she would be re-homed the following week. I was gutted, but thought, “Ah well, it clearly wasn’t meant to be after all”
But I didn’t give up at that, I emailed the rescue centre the following week and asked how the home check had gone and was told everything had gone great, they had found the perfect home for her and she was going to be picked up the following day.
Well that was it. Paul and I talked about looking online for other suitable rescue dogs, but decided against it, believing that we just weren’t meant to have another dog and would go back to our original plan of sticking to having just one dog.
The following day I got a phone call…The guy that was supposed to be taking Kaya home that day had changed his mind an hour before he was due to pick her up….She was once again up for re-homing!! This WAS meant to be!!
We were told several people had been to see her in the hope of re-homing her, but had been turned away because they just weren’t suitable.
We went to see her the following day taking Ollie with us, obviously us re-homing her was all subject to her and Ollie getting along. (Read Ollie's story HERE)
The rescue centre was at the top of a very long winding country road. We parked our car at the bottom of the hill and started to walk up. At the top of the road we saw four or five people, all with dogs. We spotted Kaya straight away, sitting down next to the lady that was holding her lead. What happened next is an image I will never forget…As Kaya spotted us in the distance she stood up, wagging her tail excitedly. She was almost pulling the poor lady that was holding her lead over in order to get to us! The other dogs remained uninterested in us, but the closer we got to Kaya the more excited she got! As we got close to her she greeted us wagging her tail with so much force that she almost fell over!! It was as though she had been waiting for us, as though she recognised us instantly as her new family. She and Ollie took to each other instantly, it was as though they had known each other all their life! They bounced around playing happily together.
All the staff at the rescue centre couldn’t believe her reaction to us. They said she hadn’t reacted like this to anyone else, she had been friendly towards them, but calm, even the guy that was due to pick her up the previous day hadn’t had this reaction from her. She jumped around excitedly and followed us around happily, licking us and giving us her paw.
The staff at the home repeated what I had been saying since the very first time I saw her picture…”This was meant to be”
The next step was a home-check. The lady that had been taking care of Kaya said that because of the amazing reaction that Kaya had towards us she would do the home check the following day. Unfortunately because of where the home was situated and because of my husband’s work commitments it meant that we wouldn’t be able to pick her up for another week after the home check was completed. However, another member of staff said that because of how this was clearly “meant to be” He would actually deliver Kaya to us straight after the home-check!! They seemed confident that we would pass it, but had to follow procedure…..And so it was, we had the home-check the following day and an hour later this lovely man dropped her off at our house. This was the first time they had ever delivered a dog for anyone, but they said they had never seen a dog react in such a way towards strangers that Kaya had with us and they felt that she clearly needed to be with us as soon as possible…..”It was meant to be”
The staff at the home repeated what I had been saying since the very first time I saw her picture…”This was meant to be”
For the first 2 months with us Kaya was a very quiet dog, in fact she didn’t even bark. She was very stubborn and suffered from selective deafness. Her recall was practically zero! Whilst she has always been an incredibly friendly and confident dog who fears nothing! There were certain things that she wouldn’t tolerate. She hated being towel dried, in particular around her legs and belly area, and would curl her lip up if we touched her in a way that she wasn’t happy with. We realise now, these issues were all part of her settling in process. She had come from a happy home and had been taken to the RSPCA because her previous owner was terminally ill. She had been in the same loving home since being a small puppy and suddenly at 5 years old, she ended up in a shelter. It must have seemed like her whole world had been turned upside down. Looking back I now realise that it took her quite a while to fully settle in and feel secure and confident that she wasn’t about to be moved on and placed in another home.
A couple of weeks after Kaya joined us I shared a picture of her on my Facebook profile. A friend of mine shared her picture and a friend of hers recognised her as the dog that her mum had sent to the RSPCA for re-homing. This lady was good enough to send me all Kaya’s paperwork, including her family tree, from which I have managed to trace a couple of her relatives, including a beautiful dog called Layka, who turns out to be Kaya’s Aunty. I also learned that she is in fact a Utonagon, not A Northern Unuit.
Her re-call now is about 80%. Which has made a huge difference and it obviously means that she gets a lot more exercise because we feel more confident letting her run freely. Every now and again though, that selective deafness sneaks back…She is a very inquisitive dog and is easily distracted. If she sees something of interest in the distance she is heads off in that direction like a rocket!! It can sometimes take us calling her 3 or 4 times before she takes any notice, but at least she does come back…eventually!
We get lots of attention wherever we go with her. She is a very friendly girl and loves meeting people. People often come over to stroke her. Occasionally people will cross the road to avoid her, because they think she is a big bad wolf!
She never leaves my side, is always lay at my feet and if I am feeling unwell, she is right there with me, lying beside me and giving me a little nudge in the face now and again to check that I am ok.
