Vizsla-versary!

A year ago today little Miss Meli landed on the tarmac at Kelowna Airport and straight into our hearts. Those weeks waiting for her to come to us from Pointblank Dogs seemed to pass by at a snails pace, yet these last 365 days have flown by. I couldn’t imagine life without her.

She fits into our lives perfectly. She hangs out with us as long as possible, going to bed late, and getting up late. Lazybones barely raises her head to greet us good morning when the alarm is set on the dark side of 6am! She’ll follow us loyally around the house – re-positioning herself from the upstairs sofa to the downstairs sofa to keep a watchful eye as we workout, or from one study to the next depending on where the sun spots are! (they don't call them Velcro dogs for nothing!)

She has un-ending Vizsla energy (once she finally decides to get up in the morning!). Slowly but surely she’s learning to become my faithful running partner. We’re managing the short runs right now, with a few minutes at the start (and somewhere at the 4 mile mark) where we have a case of the crazies but on the whole when I look down at her cute wriggly bum she seems happy to be trotting along beside me.

She doesn’t like venturing into the back garden for some reason – but once we coax her there she’s fine. She’s finicky with her food – getting bored of the bags after a few weeks so we try something new every time, she hates her nails being clipped, but our hardwood floors plead with us to do them regularly (but honestly Meli is more vocal so she usually wins that battle). She gets restless and needy if she doesn’t get some good off-leash time and exercise.

She loves her doggy friends, oh, what am I saying – she loves everyone! You’ll be her long lost friend every time you see her – even if it was 5 minutes ago! She loves playtime at doggy daycare and sleep-overs at Auntie Liz’s and mopes around for a few hours when you first bring her home and away from her friends.

She’s so well behaved in the house. She has never chewed, and is well trained to sit at our bedroom door and go no further – it’s her one no-go zone and she is brilliant at respecting that. She’ll sit patiently for her food and rings a bell at the front door when she needs to go potty. She likes roaming outside but if she sees a doggy friend she’ll be off – her one trouble-spot when it comes to discipline! She tolerates her leash (barely) preferring to run wild and crazy, and lucky for all of us we live so close to the woods.

And after last year’s uncertainly she loves the water, and has a competitive edge when there’s one ball or stick and more than one dog – and usually she’ll win! If there’s no water she’ll happily take a giant ball of the white stuff – cold? – what cold?! Throwing snowballs (or water in the summer) at her is one of her favourite games – and she’s still not figured out there’s nothing there to actually catch! And just yesterday - the eve of her anniversary with us she's become a SUP dog - we're so proud! 

Yes, life as a family of 3 is good. Meli-mou we love you! Happy 1 year anniversary to us!