Curious Kuri

We talked about getting a pet - perhaps a dog, so we decided to check out the Christchurch City Dog Shelter to see if there were any that we liked. We wanted to adopt a dog from a shelter because there are already so many dogs out there that people regard as objects to be thrown out when they are not wanted anymore. We also wanted to avoid purchasing a dog from a pet store because many pet stores get their dogs from "puppy mills."

It is often possible to find great dogs from a shelter and it is amazing just how many dogs are not adopted by folks through these organizations. So about a week ago we decided to visit the Christchurch City Dog Shelter, where dogs are kept for a period of 8 days, after which, if they are not picked up, are sent to Dogwatch, a shelter here in Christchurch. This is good because the Dogwatch shelter is a "no kill" shelter, which means it will board these animals until a home can be found.

Our first trip to the shelter was a quick trip on a Saturday and we spent about a half hour looking at the dogs they had. We both liked one particular dog - a puppy - which was not barking even though the other dogs' barking made for quite a cacophony. After we left the shelter we decided I would return to the shelter on the following Monday, and if that dog was still there I would put my name down to adopt him.

I drove to the shelter on Monday and the dog was still there so I put my name down by his number. I was informed that if no one claimed the dog by the following Saturday we could adopt him - Great! We talked about what we would need to get for a dog and wondered about a name (BTW, I was not sure if he already had one :-)

The next Saturday Gaby and drove by the shelter to see if the dog was still there - he was! - and made the necessary arrangements to pick him up. They then informed us he did not have a name and asked if we had a name picked out for him for their records. We didn't have one.

I had a friend who once had a dog name "dog" (pronounced "dee-oh-gee"). I asked Gaby to look up what "dog" translates to in Maori and she said it was "kuri" - which sounded like a good name to me. So, now we have a dog named Kuri. We were informed by the folks at the shelter that he was a 5 month old male. He is a mutt; or, as the Kiwis say, a "bitsa" - bits of this and bits of that. Of course, without knowing what breed his parents were we will never know exactly what he is a mix of (his parents could have been mixes themselves.) That being said, the best consensus I have heard so far: he appears to be a mix of a staffordshire terrier and a fox terrier. He has the brindle coloring (black and brown stripes) and white paw(s) common to a staffordshire and the forward flopping ears common to a fox terrier.

Yesterday Kuri had an appointment with the vet for neutering and a general health checkup. I picked him up in the afternoon and the vet said he was a very healthy dog. He seems to be doing fairly well today given the type of procedure he had only yesterday :-)

Since Kuri is only five months old, he is very curious about his new environment. I know it takes quite a bit of love and devotion to raise a puppy to a well behaved dog; however, I know the effort will be worth it.

"It seems our Kuri likes to please/
Let's hope we have the expertise."