New member of the family: meet Merlin

With much anticipation, last Friday we got to meet the newest member of the family: Merlin.  My sister adopted this homeless 1 year old Australian Shepherd and he's as good as gold!   Smart, affectionate and wanting to please, Merlin also is a rambunctious teen who's testing his boundaries but he's oh so very smart in the best ways. 

And here he is playing with my 7 year old Willow! 

 

Ever since being attacked by a Golden Retriever she hasn't been the same, I can't predict her reaction to new dogs.  We were very careful in how we introduced these two, choosing to simply walk away from the house, meeting at the end of the driveway and just continue walking.  As we moved quickly along, the dogs both had no time to fuss and got to sniff each other only when we paused.  In this way, they got used to each other, had multiple quick introductions and any shows of aggression were quickly stopped by walking on.  By the time we reached our driveway (about 10 minutes later), they were ready to be off leash in the yard, and everything was okay!  Sure, there are angry growls and teeth every now and again but no fighting.  Willow is very clear when she wants Merlin to back off and he does. 

And when my sister visits we often go shopping and we found Hallowe'en!  In our Dollarama and Dollarstore, we got some Hallowe'en goodies, like this large circular "Happy Hallowe'en" window decoration, and Winners had some goodies too, with lots of great Canadian-made dog treats!  Let the party begin!

That's Zima, Mocha and Merlin deciding if the house is too scary to enter and here's Willow taking a break.