Hello Palmerston… And Sundae Rose!

 

One of the best things that has happened since we arrived in Palmerston (Darwin, Northern Territory) is within the first week of us getting here we got a puppy!

Now I know what some of you are thinking, crazy right? But it’s not as impulsive as you might think. We had planned on getting another fur baby after we got married. Since we got married in November we thought it could be a Christmas present to our new little family. But with all the moving and the fuss of travelling all over the countryside to see both sets of family (not to mention the financial constraints) during the Christmas season we though we would just wait until we got here to Darwin. I wanted a chocolate coloured mini labradoodle, a little girl. Pretty specific I know… But when we got here to Darwin we went into a few pet stores and spoke to a few people, did Google searches etc. and it seemed that there was not much chance of us getting such a specific dog up here. In the back of my mind I was thinking, oh well, when the time is right we might have to get one from Melbourne or something…

BUT then we walked into another pet store Pets Village.

Check out this youtube clip of a TV ad they did

Inside were about 5/6 Beaglier puppies!

As some of you may know we already have a Beagle called Bella.

She is a law unto her own and part of us wanting to get another dog was to keep her company as apparently Beagles are better behaved if they are in pairs and Bella suffers from anxiety

We had actually seen Beagliers before and had considered them as a dog option but I had been pretty set on a labradoodle. Just FYI Beagliers are the result of mating a Beagle (like Bella above) with  a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel like this dog below...

Also, I had said (as a flippant comment) that if we ever got a Beagle again I would like to get a lemon beagle which is a different type of colouring (they are a lot less common)… Guess what? There were two little Lemon Beaglier girls in Pets Village but one of them was already sold. Guess who was walking around the enclosure while all her brothers and sisters were asleep when we arrived at Pets Village? Our new baby!

We asked one of the girls in Pets Village if we could have a look (and asked what sex she was just to make sure) and honestly, she chose us! She looked up at us with her big brown eyes and then she started licking me and (although she was a bit drowsy) she started snuggling into me. So sweet. We asked if they could hold her for us and they said till the end of the day and we went home to think about it.

Well, I went home to think about it, Simon (the big softie) was already sold!

I googled Beagliers just to make sure we knew what we were getting ourselves in for. Already owning a Beagle had set us up nicely to know what to expect. Beagle’s aren’t necessarily just big brown eyed, velvet eared noses! They are naughty and escape artists and food controls their world! A lot of people who owned Beagliers had lots of really positive things to say about them and how much they loved them. Half of the owners said they were just like a Beagle with the gentle nature of the Cavalier and the other half said, nope, still got the Beagle temperament… So, we decided to jump in and went back to the pet store, had another look and cuddle with her and decided to go for it! She still had to be microchipped that afternoon so we weren’t able to pick her up until the next day but we paid for her in full and then came back the next day.

Her name is Sundae Rose and she is now 9 weeks old.

On Friday we took her for her first vet visit (with us) and we will be taking her back in the next few weeks for her next lot of immunisations. There’s lots of different things you have to consider in owning a dog up here in the Territory. The first one is that there is a different type of strain of parvo which is carried through the possums and rats up here that can kill your dog so they have to be immunised against that. Also because of the tropical environment there are a lot more really seriously nasty bacterias in the soil, particularly in the wet season (now). So the vet recommended we don’t take her out of the yard for walks etc. until two weeks after her third and final round of vaccines which is still a couple of months away… And lastly it gets a lot hotter and humid up here than most other places in Australia so you’ve really gotta think about what kind of access your dog is going to have to air-conditioning. Especially in the heat of the day when you might be at work… It’s just a little bit more work…

And we have found that a brand-new puppy that is just starting to teeth and needs to be toilet trained with an adult dog that suffers from anxiety in a new town while Simon and I are starting new jobs works out to a lot of stress… But we think it’s the good kind. The kind you want to go through for greater happiness overall!

Sundae Rose is super inquisitive, adventurous, brave and fun already and that’s just the first week! She is great to snuggle with and easy to play with. we just can’t wait for Bella to just relax and have fun with her!

Happy Day!***