The decision was made by me as a surprise for my now husband. His birthday was drawing near and this was my gift. We decided to depart New Jersey on a Friday night and drive to Windsor, South Carolina. It was a little to no stop drive that took eleven hours. We arrived some time before sunrise, so we parked in a nearby gas station to take a nap. We were very excited to meet this Siberian husky!
Upon sunrise, we rose to begin our drive towards the breeder's home. When we arrived at her home, we were surprised to see a gang of dogs rushing towards us. All were Siberian Huskies except one, whom of which I do not remember the breed. We were escstatic to meet our new family member as these dogs were trained off-leash and were a pack. (Huskies are pack animals) When we came out of our car, we greeted everyone, including the breeder and her husband and then were told to come inside, as our Scout was inside. Boy, was he a nervous wreck! He tried to race towards the nearest hiding spot, which I assume he thought was the safest? Scout's choice of hiding was underneath a chair or couch, which I saw him. I could not help to stare, so after a couple of minutes, I kneeled and crawled over to Scout. He still was a bit timid but he did sniff my hand. Afterward, I grabbed him under the arms and carried him towards my husband, placing him on the couch with us. Scout was still nervous as we were new to him but fell asleep almost instantly as I begun to pet him.
Fast forward a couple of months as his coat grows in. His coat is the softest we had felt on a dog (thank you double coats!) and it was a diluted black. It had caused me so much joy and grief to be able to snuggle up to him during the cold nights and yet, when he had begun to shed, there was enough to fill TWO pillow cases. His personality was perfection. His master had decided to change his name from Scout, to Ares, the god of war. When brought to the dog park, he stayed near his master and would pull on the cuffs of his jeans when another dog came to close. As if he was jealous.. almost as if he was saying "Hey, let's get out of here!" But even with all these memories, his life was cut short at the tender age of 4 months. Ares crossed the rainbow bridge in the AM on Black Friday of 2010 from Parvo.