The Great Escape (artist that is).

It would appear that our new dog Nook has a few tricks up his sleeve. Don and I adopted Nook from the shelter on Wednesday afternoon. I spent the rest of the day at home with him while he checked out the house from top to bottom. I had to go back to work on Thursday and Friday, but came home at lunch to check on him and take him on a walk.
My coworkers were very excited that we were adopting Nook. My awesome and wonderful boss Susan wanted to meet him, so I invited her to my house for lunch yesterday. As I was unlocking the door I noticed that Nook was not waiting at the front door as he likes to do. In fact he was no where in sight. His leash was hanging by the door, but no Nook!
I started freaking out, I couldn't figure out how the door was shut but he was missing! I called Don and for the next 4 hours we searched our village praying that we would find him. I am happy to say that someone did find him and brought him to a local Veterinarian in our village. The vet called the Kaiserslautern Tiernheim (animal shelter) and they picked him up. Our neighboors/landlord started calling around while Don and I were searching by car and on foot, when they happened to call the shelter that confirmed they had Nook.
We drove the 10km to the shelter as fast as our little white ghetto wagon could take us, paid the 10 euro and brought him back home. He was exhausted and filthy dirty, but he was home and that is all that mattered.
The only explanation we can think of is that he was able to push down on the front door- which has a handle not a doorknob. I had left a couple of windows open and the draft probably shut the front door after him (although we aren't counting out the possiblity that he can also shut doors behind him).
It has been an eventful week for Nook! Don and I have freed him from two (that's 2) doggie prisons in 48 hours. We now have to lock the deadbolt whenever we leave the house. Let's see him unlock the front door now!
Since Nook is 12 years old (13 in July) there is no sense in changing his name, but we are considering giving him a middle name Houdini...he sort of earned it!
We are reading up on dogs with separation anxiety, so please let us know if you have any suggestions!

They call it puppy love

This week Don and I will become the proud owners of a Siberian Husky named Nook.

Here is a picture of our new friend and companion:

We discovered Nook at a local military animal shelter. We had originally planned to meet a small Yorkshire Terrier named Bailey (who turned out to be a crazy devil dog), when we noticed the very sweet, and mellow husky in the pen next to the Yorkie.

While we spoke with the caretaker of the animals, I noticed that Don kept looking over my shoulder at this dog in the pen behind me. He finally asked the lady why Nook was at the shelter. She explained that a month ago his family of 12 years turned him in because they didn't think that he would live much longer. It was so sad to think that after years of caring for this dog they could just leave him to spend his last years in a loud and smelly animal shelter.

Don and I looked at each other and that was that. We knew that we wanted to bring him home to live with us, even if it is for a short time. We spent some time with him and spoke with the Veterinarian at the shelter as to his health and life expectancy- they did not agree with the family that Nook was close to dying and actually begged the family to keep him. He may be an older dog but he is still very alert and active, they believe that he has a few good years left in him.

We are very excited to finally have a pet of our own, and plan to include him in many of our trips and jaunts around Germany. Apparently he loves to ride in the car.

Expect to see a lot of Nook in future postings!

Robin