We all knew the truth, but held out for the possibility that we could be wrong--until today. This afternoon, the former owner of the ranch where I got Saoirse and her partner came over for a visit. The dogs were in the backyard, and as soon as we opened the sliding door, she smiled broadly and said, "Hi, Appa." He was so happy to see her. They hugged and played for upwards of an hour, and it erased all doubt in our minds that our new dog is Saoirse's daddy. All the signs were there, but until she came to the house, I couldn't say it was 100% true.
I am still blown away by the magic of this reunion. The ranch was almost 200 miles from here. The owner had connections to our side of this county, so when they had to pare down the number of ranch dogs (there were so many), and sell nearly the entire herd of alpacas, it wasn't that far of a leap that she would adopt out some to friends here. She said Appa was always an escape artist, so my theories of how he ran away and got picked up by animal control seem logical. He stayed at the shelter for so long probably because he is such a large dog, although they said he had lost a lot of weight since they saw him last. (Yikes) She still has his early medical records, so that will be nice to have for our vet. And she confirmed that he was always this big of a cuddle bug.
I need to get some pictures for tonight. Somehow the reunion seemed too personal to photograph for the internet to view. I might serve us up a dish of ice cream before bed, and bring the pups in to help with cleanup, so I can take a picture or two then. I bet there is still a happy twinkle in Beinn Appa's eyes.
(They came out blurry, but I think you can still see the comfortable dynamic between the dogs.)
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