The Stray Dog

In honour of our Dutch friends, the first post for a long time, as well as the first of the new year, appears in English (well, you tell me the logic behind that...)

Anyway, here's a short recap: Kaiku the Stray Dog came to us in October, just 11 weeks of age. (in fact he's not a stray, of course not, but more on that a bit later). The first weeks and months have been filled with many happy occasions, some incidents and even a few accidents, all pretty harmless though. Kaiku has grown into a house-trained "pup" of over 5 months, a confident and frienly character.

Heimo the bearded collie (now 12, unbelievable!) and Arwo, the older Lapponian herder (already 4 and as fiery as ever), are taking good care of the little one. Heimo only intervenes when absolutely necessary, but also with absolute authority. Arwo, on the other hand, is the definitive tell-tale: whatever Kaiku is doing that might be interpreted as not accepted, Arwo will come to either of the humans to inform that unlawful activities are taking place among the household's adolescent canine fraction, and that he should be exepmted of any punishment, in light of his voluntary cooperation and apparent innocence. This kind of activity is mostly connected to Kaiku having a taste of Jerry the cat in the most friendly manner - a sentiment not necessarily shared by the little feline pensioner (now almost 16).

As for the appearance of Kaiku, one of our friends stated that he looks like "a melancholic stray dog", with ears pointed sideways and a grunt on his face... hence the title, and the nickname. Naturally, his nicks are many: "Kaiks", "Kai-Kai", "Kaikulainen", "Kaikkonen", "Kaikale", ...

As January progresses the days will get longer and we might even have some snow, eventually. Until that time, it's muddy paws, walks in the rain, darkness in the city. But hey, life is life.