A TEMPORARY FAMILY MEMBER

OUR FIRST DOG-SITTING EXPERIENCE

For the most of you who follow me on Instagram you probably already know that we were dog-sitting this cute little fox.

A couple of days ago, David told me about this family who had a Shiba Inu dog and was looking for someone to take care of him for the weekend, since they would be out of the country. Of course, I got all excited at first and, as soon as I knew that the dates wouldn't be interfering with our trip to London, I told him to get in touch with this family.
It's funny though because normally I am the one who gets all crazy to bring more pets home, but he was super excited about it!

Even though we were both excited to have a dog again, even if only for a couple of days, we were also quite concerned about Eva's behavior to the dog and vice-versa. It's not like as if she isn't used to animals, she actually interacts a lot with several different kinds of animals on a daily basis, and she is so cute doing that! 

A side story: A couple of weeks ago we went to visit her first (and so far only) babysitter, who has a couple of hedgehogs that had babies, and the first thing Eva did as soon as she saw one of the babies was to pet him very gently. I honestly, never thought she would be interested in touching it, mainly because of the texture not being fluffy, but she totally loved it. Now back to the dog, we had the visit of Ted, the Shiba Inu, and Gi who is the owner, some days prior to the date of their traveling, so that we could feel familiarized with each other. Needless to say that we all get along just fine.

We were super happy to learn that he is used to kids and his behavior with Eva was great. Eva, on the other hand, made a friend for life and loved him since the first time she laid eyes on him.

We know exactly what it is to have a dog or any pet for that matter, and not having anyone you trust to take care of him, or even the courage to leave him in an animal hotel. Back in Portugal with our dog, we ended up always traveling with her because it was just too heartbreaking to leave her in a hotel. So having the opportunity to do good to someone, especially while having fun, is just amazing. We know how thankful his owners are for having us taking care of him and sending pics of him, from time to time, and we are grateful for the trust and experience we've had.

Overall we had a super fun time, he is definitely a family dog, always following us around everywhere, never left us alone for a minute, always taking good care of Eva and kissing her all over (which she loved and laughed every single time) and let me tell you that going out with him, especially at night was super reinvigorating. I even managed to have some running time with him and it felt pretty good.

We would love to have a dog again, but there are too many things to consider first. David, who wanted a Rottweiler so badly now wants a Shiba Inu as well. Fun times ahead of us I guess! The bunnies, Einstein and Yoko, do not find it so funny though.

Anyway, for now, I will leave you with a couple of pictures we took today, just before he left our home. He's pretty camera shy, by the way, the only time where he left me alone, but he's super majestic nonetheless.

If this post helped at least one of you to think twice about volunteering to take care of someone's else pet while they're away, then my job is done here.