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Anna and Elsa,  Fur parenting

Anna and Elsa become parkerlings!

Anna and Elsa are the happy ending to quite a drawn out process of finding some new fur babies to join our family.  Here’s how they came to join us…

But first, Amber and Ubu…

Our story actually begins all the way back in June of 2006.  We were close friends with an elderly neighbour a few doors down who had three dogs; a Wire-haired Terrier, a Rottweiler and a Collie/Spaniel cross.  Don didn’t believe in neutering the boys; he was old fashioned like that.  But he made sure the girls were spayed.  Unfortunately, little Tiny, the wire-haired Terrier wasn’t watched as carefully as she should have been and old Buster, the collie/spaniel mix, had his way with her.  What followed was a litter of 5 pups, all extremely cute.  Sandy was even able to see their birth as she happened to be visiting with Don on the day they were born. Eight weeks later, two of them became ours. Amber and Ubu, very quickly, were the apple of our eye and to this day, are still our very proud Facebook profile pictures.

Amber at around 8 weeks old
And our handsome Ubu as a pup

Jumping forward 11 years, in April 2017, we had to say goodbye to Ubu.  He developed congestive heart failure and there was nothing that could be done for him.  We mourned his loss and were so very grateful for his sensitive and loving nature.  All of a sudden, sister Amber was top dog.  This suited her fine; she loved all the spoiling she received.

The search for a new fur baby begins.

Three years after Ubu passed, we started thinking about life after Amber. Knowing that she was getting on and not wanting to be without a dog in the family, we started looking around online.  In March 2020, I applied to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home to see if we could try to get a little friend for Amber.  I was quickly accepted and put onto their wait list for another small dog. However, with the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a sudden mad rush of people wanting dogs, since suddenly the country had free time as so many were placed on furlough. This meant that the waiting list at Battersea was growing by the day, and, according to Battersea, they were receiving thousands of applications in a month. While unfortunate for us and other adopters, it was great for the dogs.  The pandemic meant fewer dogs required rescuing; people suddenly had time to be with their dogs, so fewer were coming up for adoption. On the one occasion I was offered a dog via Battersea, it was one that came with problems that I wouldn’t be able to train out, due to my lack of experience with the breed.  So, the search for a new fur baby continued…

At the same time, I was looking at Dogs Trust. At this time we were sponsoring a dog with them, so I constantly watched their site for any new dogs coming in. Unfortunately, again, due to the number of people wanting dogs, any that would work in our household were taken before I had a chance of getting in contact. The search continued…

Then, the search intensified.

In July 2020, just a couple of weeks after her 14th birthday, Amber became very ill. We did all we could, but unfortunately with her age and condition, there was no further treatment we could try, and we had to put her to sleep. Such a sad time. And, of course, we hadn’t yet been able to adopt another dog, so our house became very lonely – and quiet. This was tough as we were so used to having at least one dog around the house, getting cuddles, sitting on our lap, laying on the bed, and getting us out of the house on dog walks.

We remained on the waiting lists and just let the time pass until we were ready once again for another dog. We continued looking at the shelters, at online ads to see if we could buy a pup or dog, but there just weren’t any in our price range. In the same way people were buying out all of the toilet paper and selling it at extortionate prices, puppies were suddenly being sold for anywhere between £800 and £3300. We couldn’t believe it. People were actually paying that much, and even now, in April 2021, over half a year on, there are ads up to £4500 for a puppy! Unfortunately, if people are willing to pay then these inflated prices will only continue. It also has the unhappy consequence of leading to a spate of puppy thefts.

I was really struggling to figure out what to do next so, on a whim, I turned to Facebook. I typed a post into a group for local residents and asked if anyone had any ideas from where we might adopt or purchase at a reasonable price. Very quickly I received multiple messages about applying to adopt from Europe, with more than one person mentioning two specific charities that they’d either adopted from or knew of from their friends and family.  The pictures and success stories came flooding in.

I was quite wary of adopting through someone I didn’t know, and from a charity that wasn’t necessarily well-known. But with the number of positive comments and no negative experiences being described, I re-started my search and applied to one of the charities, Home 2 Home Dog & Cat Rescue. The charity was based in the UK but the dogs were in a rescue location in Romania.

We had a look around their site at the dogs they currently had available for re-homing, and we found one that could possibly fit into our family. So, finally, in early October, we requested a home visit.  It was done the next day, and we were immediately accepted.

We were able to request more information on the dog and at the same time were shown photos and videos of some others that the charity believed would suit us. After receiving multiple photos and videos, we decided on two young dogs, Noah (one year) and Monty (two years). They were gorgeous little dogs that had been rescued together, and both looked very different. We put in an application for the dogs and on 10th October, we started the adoption process. We were sent further photos and details.

But there was a fateful twist.

Just as we were about to finalise the adoption, we received a call from my father-in-law in America. He had finally managed to sell his house, and this time he was pretty sure the sale wasn’t going to fall through (like the 4 previous offers), after 2 years on the market. Dad was in a big need for help. We were more than happy to help with this.  Due to strict US entry criteria because of the pandemic, the sale of a house was a permitted, essential reason for travel.

But it meant that we couldn’t adopt the dogs that we were just about to commit to. Sadly we made the hard decision. After all that effort to find new fur babies, we knew that it would be cruel to bring them into their new home, only to pass them off to someone (or a kennel) to look after for at least three weeks, while we were out of the country.

We were so disappointed, but were grateful that the people arranging the adoption were very understanding.  They assured us that we could apply again when we were ready. Thank God that within just a couple of days, both dogs were adopted by new families. So, while we wouldn’t have them, we knew they were saved, and they were going to make two other families very happy. And, most importantly, they would get all the love that they deserved.

Shortly after our return from the States, we decided it was time to try adopting again.  So I contacted the charity to let them know. This time they also offered us the option of fostering. I thought this would be a good idea, so we were put on that list, too. However, we were thrilled when just a few days later, the charity asked if we still wanted to adopt.  They had a litter of puppies that had been rescued and were now ready to go. Rather than advertising the puppies on their website, where the charity would be bombarded with interest, they instead contacted those of us who were already on the home-approved list first. We could see God’s hand ultimately working in this course of events and jumped at the chance.  Just moments later I received photos and videos showing the litter and their mum, along with specific photos of the two girls we could have. These two pups were the smallest of the litter and amazingly cute. Straight away Sandy and I had a discussion which didn’t last long at all. We said yes, and were able to adopt both of the remaining pups!

Our first glimpse of Anna playing in Romania.

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And playful, inquisitive Elsa with those white forepaws!

And the happy ending we were hoping for was finally happening!

Now came the hard part of the process – naming and waiting.  It took us more deliberation to come up with their names than we’d had for a while. We finally settled on Anna and Elsa. They’re the names of the sister princesses in the animated Disney film, Frozen, which was apt for several reasons:  they were both girls, were sisters, and were being adopted in winter. It was quite easy to pair the names to the pups when we saw the white socks on the front paws that reminded us of Elsa’s gloves in the film.

We had to pay the charity in advance for the adoption fee. It was a substantial amount of money and we were leery about this, having never been involved with this charity before, and since we wouldn’t see the dogs in person until they arrived. But, with so many success stories from others who had worked with them, we decided we were prepared to take the risk. The adoption fee wasn’t much different to what the various well-known UK charities charged, so considering that Home 2 Home would be covering all the necessary jabs, a passport, and the transport to bring them to the UK, it felt very fair and reasonable. 

We were told that the pups would be leaving their home in Romania on 26th December, and would arrive in the UK on the 28th.  We were a little worried that we wouldn’t be able to collect the pups due to Covid restrictions, as the rule at the time was that you weren’t allowed to go out, other than for shopping or work. However, rescuing dogs was considered to be travelling for work for the charity and for the adopters, it was covered under animal welfare. During this time of 2020 in the UK, people outside of your support bubble were not allowed to be in contact in an indoor setting.  We were glad that the transport would occur before the Brexit import regulations came into effect, too.

And Anna and Elsa arrived!

So, the big day came. On 28th December we went to pick them up at one of the big motorway rest stops along the M25.  It was an exciting wait for the vehicle to arrive. We’d been receiving updates of where they were throughout their long journey. Eventually, we spotted the vehicle come into the car park.  They were here!  The van was pretty big.  It was temperature controlled and set up well to hold dogs safely and comfortably. I did take a sneaky look inside and it was very clean. We handed over our training leads, and the driver found our girls, one by one.  We signed the papers and the passports, and they were handed over. You cannot imagine how amazing it felt to each be holding a cuddly, warm, 4 kg puppy after those long 6 months without a fur baby.

Of course, after a long trip, it was time for the final leg of their journey to their forever home, but first, a wee.

Earlier in the morning, we had squeezed our dog crate into the back of our van for us to transport them home.  They weren’t too loud on the ride home considering all the new surroundings and us as strangers. Not a sound, other than them moving around the crate. Every time I looked back, they seemed to have swapped position, almost like ninjas in the night, and being black and with the black van interior, it was mainly their cute puppy dog eyes that I was seeing.

As we arrived back at the house, we had to decide how best to get them into the house – whether to attempt to get their leads back on or just carry them in. Luckily, as they were so light, we just carried them in, crate and all.

And with that, our family was complete again and the fun of puppies filled our house. So many new things: toys, food, a couch to hide under, and stuff that we never imagined — to be chewed. That was definitely a day for photos, but also an explicit, startling reminder of everything that would need to be puppy-proofed once again. Lessons have been re-learned.

Let sleeping dogs lie!

We were really impressed with the charity that we worked with, Home 2 Home Dog & Cat Rescue, for our adoption experience. I highly recommend them to anyone who is considering taking on a pet, and I am more than happy to share their details if you are interested.  Feel free to ask below for more information.