Introducing the Newest Tsukioka Family Member!

No, I'm not pregnant. Not yet, anyway, but that's another blog entry for the future.

While I was in Kansas City (I'm back in Colorado Springs now, by the way. Got home on Tuesday morning, and still feel like I have jet lag...weird) Koichi endured the tragedy of the untimely death of our beloved clown fish, Juan. Juan was a part of our family for the past 2 years, and my husband had grown quite fond of him. Koichi was pretty depressed when Juan passed away. It was even worse since he was all alone with me in Kansas City. My family members were all sorry to hear of Juan's passing, and my sister-in-law, Jen, astutely pointed out that Koichi was sorely in need of a dog. Well, we followed her advice.

We weren't planning on getting a dog. It just kinda happened. It was canine destiny. On Tuesday after I returned to Colorado we went out to a fish store and were discussing what kind of new fish we would like to get. There were some nice fish, but we didn't get any that night. In passing, I said maybe we should get a dog. Koichi has always wanted a dog, and before the fish, he used to beg me to get one. My comment caused us to make an impromtu trip to the humane society on Wednesday afternoon. Perhaps we were feeling maternal and paternal, since we had just come from a visit to the hospital to see a friend and her newborn baby (who is absolutely the cutest newborn baby I have ever seen....in person). When we got the shelter we looked at all the animals, and ended up looking at the dogs, passing from one to the other. They were cute, but none really caught our eye. Until we happened on Skippyjon. He was in a pen with 3 other smallish dogs who were vying for our attention. Skippyjon was sitting calmly and quitely in the corner, not even barking though his pen-mates were yapping their heads off at us. He just looked at us with his beautiful brown eyes, and we could tell he was saying "Hey, don't go. I think I love you two." We moved on down the row, but we came back to look at Skippyjon at least 5 more times, and then decided to go ahead and meet him.



We had to fill out a form and wait 15 minutes before we were led by a shelter volunteer to a little room where she left us to go get Skippyjon. We'd recieved an information sheet on him and had found out that he had been brought to the shelter only the day before by his former owners who could no longer take care of him. He was curious and friendly when we met, and he didn't make a single sound. It was obvious he was nervous, because he was shaking like a leaf, but after a few minutes he calmed down a bit and came over to meet us. Koichi and I fell in love. Deep, deep love. Within 20 minutes we knew we wanted to make him part of our family.

So we filled out the adoption forms, paid the $98 fee, and made a mad dash to PetsMart and Wal-Mart for supplies while they held him for us. A couple hours and a hundred dollars later we had all we needed to get Skippyjon settled into our home for the first few days: a cage to crate train him in, food, dishes, a brush and shampoo. (Koichi wanted to take him straight to a groomer, but they won't see him until after he has his rabies shots updated. My husband is so Japanese sometimes, especially when it comes to keeping the house clean. But since the groomer couldn't take him, we decided to give him a bath ourselves.)

Koichi rode with Skippyjon in the back seat on the way home and we had a great time getting to know each other while we showed him the apartment and his little room in the crate. Then it was time to brush him and get as much loose hair off as we could before the bath. We still ended up having a tub full of hair, but we were happy to have a clean, minty-fresh pooch. And what a great pooch Skippyjon was! Through all the brushing and the bath, Skippyjon never made a peep. Not a single yip or bark. And he just stood there and let us handle him with no problem; no squirming or biting. We were really amazed.

We were also happy to find out the Skippyjon is a pretty smart dog. He already knows a few commands such as Sit, Stay and No. We're working on Down and Shake right now, as well as going potty in the right place. Found a couple of surprises this morning. Icky.

Oh, by the way, Skippyjon is a Schipperke mixed-breed. (That's pronounced SKIP-er-kee....it took me two days to be able to remember it.) And though he didn't actually come with the name, Skippyjon, he has already learned it, and at least turns his head to look at me when I say it, and usually comes when I call his name. His former name was a little bland for our tastes...Oliver. We didn't think he looked like an Oliver. We thought he looked more like a Skippyjon. He seems to think so too.

Friday morning we are going to the vet for his first well-visit, complements of the Pikes Peak Humane Society. Then it's off to PetsMart to get him his own collar and a training leash. We're so glad Skippyjon has become part of our family. He has a great personality, and though he's sometimes very energetic, he's very gentle and quiet. A great apartment dog.