It's a funny old world.
Earlier this week, my daughter was just scrolling through Facebook, and came across a post in a local moms group. It was a photo of the dog someone had been fostering for two months, and the post said they urgently needed to find him a forever home. The dog looked almost exactly like Saoirse. So my daughter took a screenshot and sent it to our group chat, saying, "I thought this was your dog." It only took a glance for me to recognize who he was.
The ranch where we got Saoirse is no more. I don't know the whole story, but before I jumped off Twitter like a rat from a sinking ship, I knew there had been some problems. The alpacas are now at the owner's parent's acreage here near where I live (and where the owner grew up), and she now lives about half an hour away from here. I noticed that when she posted pictures of the dogs anymore, she only put up ones of Saoirse's mother and sister. When I reached out and told her who I thought I'd seen, she said she had rehomed most of them a long time ago when the ranch was on the way to dissolving, but no one had said they had given them up from there. It had been well over a year since she had seen them, so she wasn't sure from the one picture whether it was one of hers.
It hurt seeing this boy in need, but I wasn't in the position to make the call on him. Mr S-P would be the one paying for dog food and vet bills, and he was grumpy when I insisted on taking puppy Saoirse. But my girl has grown into a most excellent adult, and he has warmed to her. He surprised me by saying, "set up a meeting." I said that I would leave all decisions up to him and wouldn't push.
Today was the meeting, at a snowy, empty dog park. When he walked up, I was certain. This dog is Saoirse's father Appa. I looked right in his eyes, and he got a hitch in his step like he recognized me too. He and I had hit it off so well the other two times we met. This time we had Saoirse, Murray, and guest dog Dice to meet with him, and he was a champ. So calm, so sweet.
So I put it back to Mr S-P. We all agree Murray needs more companionship. He doesn't get to come into the house nearly often enough, and he is so lonely and depressed. Appa will act as a bridge, while Saoirse continues her service dog training. We haven't tried him out with cats yet, but he has a long history of being chill with the felines.
There is disagreement in the ranks of whether we would keep the name Appa. I want him to have a Gaelic name like Saoirse, but we haven't settled on one yet. He's not due for a rabies booster until the end of the month, so we can brainstorm until then.
There is much more to his story, but this is already a long post. I will have time for more later. Also, he outweighs Saoirse by about 20 pounds. I told everyone she is a dainty puppy. Now I have proof.
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