KIP GOES HOME!

5 JULY 2010

Kip & Karry

Shannon writes: Kip went home today!!

It happened so fast I am still in a little shock . . . probably best though,
because both Joe & I were way too attached to him!!

His new mom & dad are Karry & Sean Creagh;
he has a little sister Lucy, a Cairn mix, who is a year old.
They just adopted Lucy a few months ago from CRUSA . . .
she was Jamie who had one puppy that was named Baby El.

[Lucy (f/k/a Jamie) was one of THE 12 CAIRNS OF CHRISTMAS
in December 2009; you can read her story HERE]

I had gotten an email from Shell saying they were interested in a different dog,
but if that didn't work out, would I be interested in them for Kip?
When I saw their name it sounded familiar to me,
so I checked my files; sure enough, I had done their vet & reference checks!
At the bottom of these reports there is a place for comments . . .
this is some of what I had written: I believe this will be a fabulous home
for one of our dogs . . . and it will be one lucky little dog to be in this home.
I think they have a whole lot to offer to one of our dogs.
Their family & friends support them in every way they can with this adoption.
I say we most definitely move forward with this adoption.
So we did and they adopted little Lucy.

Because they had already adopted from us things moved almost too quickly for Joe & me & Kip. The other dog wasn't the best fit for their family; Shell had told Karry I would be calling them. I called them on Friday and yes, they definitely wanted to meet Kip. Joe & I talked it over; since we had no plans, we offered to bring him to them the next day if they'd like . . . Karry was so excited we could come so soon.

We took a nice drive the following day for the Creagh family to have a meet & greet with Kip and, of course ,Lucy. Needless to say absolutely everything went so well . . . they are wonderful people, awesome pet owners with a great fenced-in yard in a great neighborhood . . . . Lucy & Kip met and had no problems with each other at all . . . absolutely nothing! Kip made himself right at home sitting on whatever chair he could steal . . . and then in Sean's lap, where he was quite content, I would say.

Karry's brother was there; a little while later, her dad showed up to check out Kip. Sean was just so excited because Lucy weighs all of ten pounds; he kept saying how great it is to have a "real dog". I think Karry did too, because Kip is quite the big boy!

We stayed for quite a while, as we enjoyed being outside with the dogs. Karry had offered us lemonade & a homemade apple pie!! Joe was pretty excited :-) (ok so was I); we really enjoyed their company! We thought we should get on home and agreed they should talk about it without us there; when they decided what they wanted to do, they would call us.

Karry called us that night and said they would love if Kip came to live with them & Lucy . . . and when could they get him? We decided because of the busy holiday and all the traffic, we would meet Karry in Kenosha, Wisconsin so she wouldn't have to come as far.

On Monday morning, we loaded up Kip & all his belongings for our last car ride together. I cried most of the way there . . . we both had fallen in love with this sweet, gentle, loving big boy . . . so it was going to be difficult to see him go. But knowing how blessed we were to get this home for him does make it a little easier. We met, put Kip into Karry's car (Sean had to work and couldn't come), gave hugs & kisses to both Karry & Kip, and off we went . . . with me blubbering like a baby . . . I heard some sniffling, looked over at Joe; he had teared up too. First time out of 17 fosters!! But we know that every time one leaves, Gayle usually has another waiting around the corner for us to foster!!

Kip, Sean & Lucy

Karry writes:

[Ralph is the Cairn whom they lost to cancer at only three years of age.]

He is doing great! The beginning of the ride home was a bit of an adventure as he jumped off the front seat and onto the floor of the front passenger seat, stuck his head under it digging away and came out with a Dorito® that was who-knows-how-old!

Other then that he was as good as gold. He is as sweet as can be, and I think he is going to be really good for Lucy's confidence. Already when they were in the back yard, one of my next door neighbors was outside and commented how this was the first time Lucy didn't bark at her. Lucy looked to to Kip when he saw the neighbor and because Kip didn't look worried she wasn't.

Kip spent half the night with his head in the doggy toy box making sure that he sniffed & pulled out every toy. I gave a bully stick to him & Lucy; they spent the night chewing on their sticks, then stealing the other one's stick when s/he weren't looking. It was pretty funny.

Sean & I got a little weepy at one point. Kip went upstairs; Sean went after him to make sure he wasn't getting in trouble. Kip had jumped on to one of the chairs in our front room/dining room looking out our large front window . . . . Ralph loved that window (Lucy has never even noticed we had windows). When we bought the house one of the selling points was the large low windows that Ralph could easily look out of; he loved then so. It was really sweet to see Kip there at the window where Ralph had spent so much time.

We are having a great time . . . .