Our new family addition
Ubuntu
Meet our newest family member, Ubuntu. After over a month of searching for a rescue dog the stars aligned last weekend and we happened upon a wonderful no-kill shelter called Family Dogs New Life. We don’t know much about her history but we connected right away. She needs to gain 5 pounds and learn some manners but she is sweet and is trying really hard to figure out how to belong in our house and figure out what we expect of her. She’s very loving and wants to be friends with anything that moves (people, dogs, cats, bikes). She has no signs of aggression and I’m so happy to have a dog and help out a shelter, since with the economy shelters are filling up and turning away animals. There are so many dogs that need good homes that are in shelters I don’t know why everyone doesn’t support them. They were so generous there, in addition to the vet trip, we got a free month of pet insurance, a 6 week good manners obedience class, a bag of treats and toys (which she only cares about the food) and a coupon book that includes a free 10lb bag of food. She’s already learning sit, down and stay and our biggest challenge is teaching her to walk next to us instead of pulling on the leash. But I understand that there’s a lot to smell and see that’s new.
We live 4 blocks from a dog store with treats in bulk and friendly staff that she is quickly becoming friends with. I have a handful of the Dog Whisperer’s books on hold at the library so I can understand her psychology and we can communicate better, although she’s doing much better than we anticipated, since she was a stray. I think she’s a ridgeback mix but I guess she can be anything, shepard, great dane, greyhound. But ridgebacks are actually a mix of all those breeds. Regardless, she’s cute and sweet and learning fast. I feel lucky that we live in such a dog friendly city. Once it warms up we can take her to bars and cafes since dogs are welcome in the outside seating areas. We have joined the Portland dog-owning ranks! You can see Matt’s blog for his version of the story.
Oh and we named her Ubuntu, which is a Zulu concept that basically is defined as humanity, or a positive aspect of community in that we are who we are because of those around us. And of course it’s a computer operating system that runs on Linux (which is what we run our computer on). So it sounds nice, has a beautiful meaning and is just nerdy enough to entertain Matt.