I Traded My Dog: Vancouver, BC

Here’s my new dog. His history is very sketchy, but I figured out that he is between three and four years old. After taking him to the groomer and loosing between 10 to 15 pounds of fur.

I think that he is a cross between a Corgi and an Australian Shepherd. He has two faces, literally. When he’s happy, he has the face of a Corgi, but usually it’s the face of the Australian Shepherd.

His name? We are still arguing about it. SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed, aka The Boss) calls him Harry. I call him “Dodoïte”.

So what’s the story? Last year, we adopted Ethelbert, a Maremma (the Italian version of the Pyrenees). He had to go, for a few weeks, to a friend of ours who has a ranch in the mountains. She has a very old, blind and toothless horse that the other horses would kick and bite on occasion. Ethelbert sleeps in the stable with that horse. Her ranch is a kilometer wide (about 2/3rd of a mile) by 2 kilometer long (about 1.7 mile) with a small river running through. Ethelbert runs most of the day in the fields. At least once a month, he manages in escaping for three to four days in the mountains and then comes back (obviously he’s not lost).

I don’t even have a backyard at my place.

A few weeks ago, one of my friend’s neighbour dropped the “Dodoïte”, attached him to the gate and left. So “I traded my dog”. She keeps Ethelbert and I took the “Dodoïte”. He’s never been to the city. He’s scared of big trucks, buses and of the noise from airplanes and helicopters. But, for me the most important is that he has a good character. I make him work, it’s amazing what bribery does… More or less…