A Boy’s Best Friend

Today I realized that in time that I’ve been writing, I don’t think I’ve mentioned one important part of our little family: Keko.

Keko has been such a trooper since Nikolas came along, going through weeks of attention-neglect, days where I’ve forgotten to feed him and through it all, he is the best dog a person could ask for.

For those of you who don’t know Keko’s story, we got him from S.C.A.R.S (Second Chance Animal Rescue Society) in March of 2009. He was found wandering on the side of the road on an Indian reservation up in Northern Alberta, and was picked up by a volunteer. He had bad scarring across his shoulders which indicated that he was once a sled dog. To this day, he still has the scars, but the fur around them had grown back and they are barely noticeable anymore.

I was just a couple months pregnant, and we had been waiting so long to buy a house so that we could get a dog. I had just recently given up my cat that I’d had for about 15 years, and the house was feeling empty without a pet. We knew it was time for our dog.

The weekend that I brought Keko home, Matt was in BC on a snowboarding trip, and hadn’t even met the dog. I went to the foster home where Keko had been living with a family for about 5 months to meet him, and I swear he did everything in his power to make me not like him. When I walked up to the house he was living at, I was greeted by a menacing barking dog with scary eyes chained up in the front yard. I took him for a walk by myself, and he was such a jerk. He kept jumping up on me, trying to rip the leash out of my hand and he pulled like crazy...which made sense, since his job used to be to pull. Once back at the house, I saw how he interacted with the family, and figured that despite his rough edges, I’d give him a chance.

A year and a half later, he’s still with us, and what improvements he’s made since coming home! We had to break alot of bad habits and even took him to obedience lessons. I really wanted to have him settled in with us before Nikolas came along so that he knew what part he played in our family. He was my sidekick for all of last summer and we spent many hot summer days at the dog park. He’d run like the wind and I’d waddle like a penguin.

I was of course nervous about how he’d act around little kids, but there were several incidents at the park where I’d see him get between other dogs and the kids to protect them. He’d even taken down a great dane that was barrelling straight towards a 2 yr old. What a proud mama I was that day!

I must say now how happy I am that Keko is Nikolas’ protector, and more recently, best bud. Who wouldn’t want to be best friends with someone who drops treats from the high chair?

He has shown such patience with being neglected by us for attention (and occasionally food) and doesn’t really react when Nikolas slaps him, rips out fist-fulls of fur, or constantly tries to grab his weiner. He is so gentle and is even starting to roll onto his back when Nikolas is showering him with attention.

The down side of Keko being such a great protector? I will never be able to beat my kids. The other night, I was goofing around, and lightly snapping a tea-towel at Nikolas. Keko was so not impressed and made it known. The growling and snapping at me really surprised me. Guess I’ll have to find some other kinds of discipline for the future....