If I perish soon it is likely to be from one of two causes.
I will either be tripped by tangled leashes and plunge down a flight of stairs or I will be licked to death by small dogs. There are probably other creatively uncool ways to perish but lately, these seem most likely.
I am new to the walking-small-dogs life and to be honest, not particularly good at it.
The Seabolt family has grown by 8 feet. We are proud to announce the addition of two dogs; Jackson Jagger and Nova Grace. Both are adopted/rescues.
For the record, we did not include Kandalle in this decision, our 14-year-old cat. Kandalle would like all to know that he remains The King of All Things here and he did not sign off on the adoption these tiny dogs.
Jackson is an Ewok / Shih Tzu / Swiffer Duster mix. He is approximately 3 years of age and nine pounds of pure snuggly goodness. Jackson’s superpower is that he always looks so chill and relaxed. No matter what comes along Jack remains laid back.
Girlwonder calls it his “resting adorable face.”
Nova is his exact opposite. She is a Jack Russell Terrier/ Pure Rocket Fuel mix. One-two years of age, Nova was part of a shelter evacuation/rescue out of St. Thomas in advance of Hurricane Irma.
She arrived on hastily arranged flight with no idea where she would end up. She bounced through a wonderful foster home to end up with us.
We will forever be grateful for the nice lady who allowed us to all but stalk her to make Nova ours.
Girlwonder saw her photo online and fell in love with her. We spent the next week calling, sending emails, and texting a very nice lady to convince her to let us adopt this sweet dog. I have put less effort into job applications.
Nova has been through a lot in her short life yet remains 13 pounds of brave and cheery energy.
Tiny
Small in size but huge in heart, both have already added so much love, life and light to our hearts and home. They have also added a few accidents, as expected.
They have additionally added to our tiny dog coat collection and my obsession with picking out the perfect dog food. I’m pretty certain I spent less time picking out food for my children.
I find myself being very enamored and protective of these little guys. I absolutely adored our big dogs but I never felt they needed me. Aggressive in guarding us, our German Shepherd lived to serve and protect.
I imagine he would have been mortified to have been forced to wear a sweater. I know he was far too busy patrolling for interloper squirrels to ever curl up on the sofa and help me edit a column.
Jackson enjoys both very much. He also tolerates sweaters, tiny dog coats, and my affinity for mothering him as only a newly empty nest mama of two college-age humans can.
Dog mom
I used to mock the idea of a carrier pouch to wear a small dog on one’s person.
Now I have not ruled that out. I am fully facing the reality that I may be a helicopter dog mom. I ordered a GPS tracker for my dog.
In my defense, I didn’t feel he was old enough to handle a cell phone.
Nova is snuggly for about .4 seconds every day. The rest of the time she spends being a blur, bouncing off the furniture, walls and various other pets and humans. She reminds me of a playful baby goat.
She strews toys from one end of the downstairs to another and unlike her messy human counterparts, charms me each time when she does.
Although we adored our big dogs, they definitely didn’t travel well. We look forward to dogs small enough to take along on adventures.
We have visions of taking them on hikes, walks and craft shows. I’m thinking Jackson could relax at wine tastings and enjoy camping.
In the meantime, it does take some getting used to, having such small dogs after years of a combined total of over 100 pounds of canine greatness.
Last night marked the very first time Mr. Wonderful had to ask someone to please beware to not step on our guard dogs.
