1. The dog that made you want a second dog

Sushi was our first dog child. She, despite all her initial reactive issues, got better over time with consistent training. Sushi is an incredible, attentive, and sensitive dog. The kind that makes you consider getting another one, so she herself could have company of her own species.

And it was exactly this reason that made us consider getting another family member. We noticed Sushi was sleeping most of the day when we weren't out walking or training with her.

She never played by herself, and tried to constantly make us throw her the toy.

When you start, you only finish at throw number 1,000... if you're lucky.

And Satis, her feline best friend, even though she has a sweet spot for Sushi, doesn't aLWAYs want to play like a dog.

So, we thought "Why not just get another dog with similar energy to Sushi? She'll be so much happier!"

Well... didn't turn out exactly how we imagined.

2. The Search

We got on with it, searching various online forums about which dog could help "calm down" a Belgian Malinois, but still match her energy and ability to hike long distances. Therefore we were looking for a breed with a similar build, resistance, but with a more serene energy to balance things out at home.

Eventually we discovered the working line German Shepherd, also know as a "Sable German Shepherd".

But there was still a question of if we adopt an adult or a puppy? There were so many variables that could go wrong. Sushi was still fairly reactive with other dogs. And as much as we wanted to help an adult dog, it was still a risk, especially the uncertainty if they would get along with the cats or not.

3. The Rocky Encounter

--- A few days later ---

Once upon a dark and rainy Wednesday November night, around 10pm, I was driving back home from Capoeira class. Already on the main road, about 3 minutes from turning into the residential street to the apartment, suddenly out of the corner of my right eye, in between the friscalating rain drops, I catch a glimpse of an animal running in the street. It was a small dog wearing a hoodie, that appeared to be running alone.

I slow down the car, and keep close watch to see where it's going. The dog turned the corner to what seemed to be a house still under construction. Keeping close watch for any sign of a human walking after it, I saw nothing. So I slowed down the car to a stop, close to a parking space near the house.

It was dark, and raining heavily. The house under construction appeared to be empty, and accessible to its "backyard". But the corners to get there, casted shadows, that made me think twice about further investigating.

Yet, I took a deep breath, got my phone lantern out, and slowly walked to the backyard...and there it was! The dog, I could see him walking around the house. I went after him a little bit, until he turned the corner back to the front yard.

Knowing this, I slowly went back, and met him in the front of the house. Being closer, I could see it was a boy, that mildly resembled a very small pit bull. Even from this distance though, you could see he was shivering after being in the rain.

The dog started barking at me, but not in an aggressive manner. Whilst staying at a distance, and trying to keep my energy calm, I slowly tried to make him walk towards areas more lit by the street lights.

The plan sort of worked, as he started walking back the way he came from towards a grass patch.

The barking continued, but I was able to slowly, get closer and closer. At this point, I took a picture, in case I wasn't able to pick him up - at least maybe I could post the image in the neighbourhood forums and see if anyone was missing him.

I went down close to the floor, inching even closer, to a point that he stopped barking, and was just looking at me with scared eyes. I reached out my hand, palm down so he could smell me first. And went to pick him up. Which surprisingly, he allowed me to do.

Shivering in my arms, I took him back to the car. His hoodie was drenched, and read "Baby Dog" in sewed sparkling shimmers. "Definitely not a street dog" I thought.

Back at the car, I put him in the backseat. Checking the time, it was around 10:30pm, and so decided to go to a nearby restaurant joint before it closed to ask around if anyone knew who the owner of the "Baby Dog" could be.

No luck, but I exchanged numbers with one of the waitresses to send her a photo, and hopefully get any feedback soon from the customers she would ask.

I walked back to the car and called my partner who was at home. "Hey..., sorry I'm taking so long...but... you know how you wanted another dog? Well, I just found one in the rain at the main road. I'm going to take him back home, could you bring some food and a leash?". Surprised, but not unhappy, she agreed.

After a 3 minute drive, I parked outside the apartment, and my partner came round, got in the car, and analysed the situation. Checking him for any potentially visible diseases, before we even thought about taking him upstairs to join the rest of the fur crew.

Nothing appeared wrong with him, so we took him upstairs... And as expected Sushi barked incessantly, but didn't try to attack at all. Good sign so far. Seemed like she was just showing him who's the boss of the house.

(Don't tell Sushi, but it's actually one of the cats, Satis).

We tried to feel for a microchip around the neck and chest, but no luck. Finding the owner seemed to be getting more complicated than we thought. And since it was already late, we tried to keep the barking down, gave the little dog some food, water and a bed for the night, and decided on an action plan for the next morning. Good and bad thing was that it was a public holiday.

--- The morning after ---

We woke up, and Sushi woke up the guest dog with some more barking. She's sort of accepted a new member...but not with ease.

We started posting into as many neighbourhood forums as we could find, with some luck. Some people seemed to have recognised the dog from the picture, and mentioned who the owner was. They said they often frequented a local café.

Nice! A potential solution to find the owner. Before heading out on the human hunt, we went to walk the dogs.

Ana, the ever trusting with Sushi, let her off the leash to run free. Something that works well with shepherd dogs, since they always come back for their (human) sheep.

She tried the same thing with the little half pitbull... and well, let's just say that I had to chase after it for the next 10 minutes (with the wrong bra!).

The dog was small, but he was fast for his size. This is a day I was glad I decided to choose running as a daily sport. I never lost sight of the dog somehow, and eventually managed to corner him, whilst Ana caught up with me, and help me leash him again.

After catching our breath, we dropped Sushi at home, got in the car, and drove to the local café. When we got there we asked around showing the picture of the dog we found. One of the customers mentioned she knew the owner, and told us to drive to the pink apartments near the roundabout.

We hopped on the car again, and off we went. Arriving at the pink houses, a lady was at the window. We briefly waved to her and asked if she knew if this dog lived in one of the apartments. She pointed us to one of the doors, and up the apartment stairs we went. Knocked on the door she mentioned, and a few moments later a lady comes out to greet us. Eyes widened after seeing the dog.

"Rocky!" she exclaimed. I never thought I'd see you again.

We told her the whole story, and suggested she'd micro-ship him, or at least get a name tag with an engraved phone number.

We said our goodbyes to little Rocky, and wished him well being back with his family.

Relieved for findind the owners, we went back home to the apartment to rest briefly after this rollercoaster of a public holiday. Our conclusion, from the experience of bringing an adult dog home, was that adopting a puppy would be better with Sushi.

4. Visiting the litter

That same day, Ana mentioned that she saw an advert of adoption for Sable German Shepherd puppies. The place was about a 15 minute drive. Tired and clouded from lack of sleep, yet somehow under the spell of the photos of such cute puppies. We drove there to see them.

It was a fairly run down place, but the dogs, mum and dad, and puppies, were fairly well taken care of. We were greeted by the owner, who appeared to good intentions. He said, the litter was accidental, and that he was trying to find people to adopt the puppies as fast as possible, because he was due to undertake some surgery in a couple of weeks.

He took us to see the parents, dad first. An enormous Sable German Shepherd, that must have been about 50kg, and barked non-stop.

The mum was shy and friendly, and had a scared look in her eyes.

The owner then opened the door to the puppies, all of them cutely yapping away.

We were of course, overtaken by the cuteness of the little ones.

We talked more with the owner, but not wanting to make a decision while sleepy, we said we'd reflect and contact him to let him know our decision.

5. Mental tennis

--- A week later ---

After tons of mental tennis of deciding if we should adopt a puppy from that litter we visited, or another advert, or if we even should adopt a puppy at all... analysis paralysis was taking its toll.

Ana had recently started a new job, and so had I. And being the one that (luckily) works from home, I knew I'd be the one that would had to spend most of the time caring for the puppies needs in the beginning. Something I was unsure if I could handle during work probation.

After careful consideration, reading forums, even asking my uncle and aunt (who are dog boarders and sitters at Truly Dogs in London), we decided to adopt. Thought I'm fully confident that 90% of the decision was because we were completely clouded by the spell of 2 month old puppies.

6. The rest is history

We adopted a girl puppy, and called her Manju. Trying to keep the theme of Japanese foods.

The first week encompassed what a normal week with a new puppy entails. Many vet visits, and a whole night (yep!) picking fleas of the poor little one.

Little did we know, this was the easiest week we had with her...the little rice cake trouble maker completely turned the next year and a half upside down.

--- To be continued ---

Human author: Christelle