Rondayview

Kita's first portrait

Today I finally took a bit of time to take more than just some quick snapshots of Kita. Ritina has been after me to get some pictures of Kita among the flowers near our front porch, so that seemed like a good place for a portrait style picture.

As I suspect is the case with most Shiba puppies, sitting still for a portrait doesn't rank real high on Kita's list of things she's interested in doing. So, after taking her for a long walk to expend some of her boundless energy, bribing her with cookies hidden in the plants, and getting help from Ritina to return her to the flower bed over and over and over and---you get the idea---I managed a few decent captures. This is one of my favorites.

Suspect caught on camera!

The boys and I were heading out for a few hours to meet with some other homeschool kids and go to an art class. We were taking Kita with us, but we forgot something and needed to go back to one of their rooms for a moment. We left Kita alone in the living room for maybe sixty seconds. She had no trouble finding a way to amuse herself. Click the thumbnail for some larger shots of the crime scene.

Kita's first week

Well, Kita's been with us for one week as of today. I snapped a few pictures of her yesterday while she was playing with what has become one of her favorite toys: an old racquetball. Click the photo to the left to see the rest of the pictures. So, other than these quick photos of her incredible cuteness, what can I say?

Well, she's smart! That's for certain. And she's definitely got attitude! :) But, she already loves her new home, and she's added a lot of life to this place. Her puppy teeth are incredibly sharp; all our fingers and arms are the proof. And she's amazingly quick and catlike. When she gets a bit bigger, I predict the demise of a few rabbits that presently frequent our backyard. The other night when I took her out in the middle of the night, she saw a cricket on our front porch---she caught it! And she's fearless. That tends to play against her at this age because she doesn't know what can hurt her, but she doesn't seem afraid of much of anything at all, including a neighbor's retriever that's about ten times her own size. She had that poor dog running with it's tail between it's legs! I think life with Kita is going to be fun . . .

Meet Kita

One week from tomorrow we will be welcoming Kita into our home! We still miss Coco and Honey very much, and they will never be forgotten, but we have agreed as a family that we are ready to bring a new love into our lives. Coco and Honey were both rescues, but I was ready to adopt a puppy from a breed that I have long admired: a Shiba Inu. We have settled on the name Kita for this beautiful creature. She is just under seven-weeks-old in the picture here---taken for us by her breeder---and she'll be joining our family next Saturday, September 9. (Click the photo to go to the Flickr set I've created just for Kita.)

Shibas are from the same bloodline as Akitas, and in fact many people think of them as small versions of Akita's but with more than Akita-sized attitudes! To truly appreciate the Shiba, whose puppies the dogs' own national organization refers to as "fiery little furballs from hell", you have to get to know their personality. If you're interested, here's a brief description from the National Shiba Club of America, and here is an amusing tribute from a Shiba owner that is well worth the read! (Note that the latter link contains a small bit of PG and R rated language.)

I will post more pictures and tell more about her when she finally joins us next week. We've been waiting for almost five weeks now, and we are finding it hard to be patient!