This morning Nina Hollander wrote a post called "It's National Love Your Pet day on February 20!" I read her post and thought, this is a perfect time to introduce Hercules!
After Halo, our Siberian Husky passed away in 2016, I didn't want to get another dog. For many reasons, not least among them that I had no desire to have to say goodbye again to a beloved pet. That was simply too difficult and painful. And for the most part, we live longer than our pets do, so it's bound to happen again.
So for years, my husband and I discussed. No/yes/should we/shouldn't we/why not/why yes. We were moving, so the time was bad. We were renting, so it still wasn't a good idea. And then we finally got to our new home and got settled. Part of our new routine was to take a walk down our driveway and check out animal footprints, which I've written about previously. What I didn't share yet on ActiveRain is the morning we saw some blood on the snow.
After some investigation, we determined that a mountain lion had killed a deer on our next door neighbors property, and then dragged it across our land. The lion's footprints were large, and it had pulled this deer up a steep hill, down part of our driveway, down another hill, and up another. My husband decided at that point to stop following the trail because the vegetation was getting thick and he didn't want to become lunch. But our discussions about perhaps getting a dog truly started in earnest.
Halo had been a rescue dog, and we decided to get another rescue. We had already been looking at the local Humane Society and hadn't found the right dog to adopt. So we stopped at the Flathead County Animal Shelter to check out their dogs. We had a few in mind that we wanted to see before we got there. One was a dog named Hercules, which the shelter indicated was part Great Dane with some other stuff mixed in.
So we met two dogs, another one and Hercules. Herc strutted his stuff past all the barking dogs without even looking at them. He was totally focused, came into the room where we were waiting and walked right up to both of us for petting. He looked straight into both our eyes, as if saying, "Dudes, I'm the one." So we left that day with a huge bag of food and new dog.
Since we don't know what breed he is, we are calling Hercules our Montana Mountain Dog. I have no idea why someone would have gotten rid of this two-year old 100 pounds of mush. He doesn't have a bad bone in his body.
Hercules has attached himself to my husband and is always at his side. He was house trained and already knows commands such as "sit" and "come." He rarely barks - only if someone new is at the door or if he sees something concerning outside. Herc loves going for walks and when inside just wants to snuggle. He's great in the car, just sitting in the back seat looking around. The neighbors love him and one tough guy said, "ohhhh, he's a leaner!" as he rubbed Herc's head and got a big dose of dog love.
So, our next dog journey is now underway. We are extremely lucky to have Hercules in our home. Welcome, Herc, Welcome.
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