This is for my dogs Koume, a Shiba-Inu, and Hakubi, a Hokkaido-ken, who have both passed way.
Part 1: Meeting Koume.
Koume was my first-ever dog. I always wanted a Japanese Shiba-Inu since when I was a kid because to me they’re a Japanese icon. My town was small then and everybody knew each other. Most of our neighbours had Shibas. On my way home from school I’d see them sitting beside their house watching the world go by. They look intelligent, they’re always calm, and never bark unnecessarily was my image of a Shiba, at least when I was a kid. I couldn’t have a dog when I was kid because my parents are always busy and my mother didn’t like a dogs. She was bitten by a dog when she was kid and I guess it was traumatic for her. I have a brother and he loved animals when he was kid. I remember he was hiding a kitten or cat with his friends and giving them milk and food. Because of this our garden was always where cats hung out. My mother wasn’t happy at all, Hahahaha 😅.
I always thought that when I got married I will have a dog, a Shiba- Inu!! My husband and I love animals and he’s had dogs all his life so we decided to get a Shiba. It wasn’t easy to find Shiba in Australia at that time as they weren’t popular not they are today. It took time to find Koume but when we had found her we were so happy and excited. We had to go to Bendigo in Victoria to meet her just after she was born. She was so small. When we saw her and I had chance to hold her and I was very happy even when she pee’d on me HAHAHAH😭. My husband said she felt the evil. How rude!!😤. We had to wait about 6 weeks until we could bring her home but the breeder sent photos and told us about what she had done that day, what she ate, and things like that, so we could keep up to date.
Finally the time came for us to pick her up. We drove 8 hours to Bendigo from Jindabyne but it was and exciting road trip. On the way we talked about her name, what we will do with her, how I look after a dog because this is my first time. My husband knew already things like that. We stayed in Bendigo that night at a beautifully restored old hotel so we can pick her up the next day. I couldn’t sleep that night. Next day, we got to the breeder’s house and Koume was ready to go. We packed her in to our car with a few toys so she wouldn’t get bored because it was going to be a long trip home. We had to stopped for her to pee so we had lunch in a park and she was in the big world for the first time. She wasn’t worried, she just enjoyed sun and beautiful green grass. We thought she was going to cry in the car but she didn’t much. She slept most time but a couple of hours from home she started crying a little so we thought she might need to pee. It was May in the Snowy Mountains, nearly midnight , and freezing but we stopped and got her out of the car. She was just sniffing and playing while we were waiting but she didn’t pee so we got back in the our car and headed home. I was holding her in my lap and she decided pee on me… AGAIN!! Hahahah 🤣. I said, “Really dog”.
Finally, we got home. It had taken 12 hours with all the pee stops. We were all tired but we had to work the next day so we put her in to her bed and watched for a while to make sure she was ok .After a while she just fell asleep and slept all night, no fuss, no crying, she was going to be a good dog.
To be continued……..
これは私たちが飼っていた柴犬と北海道犬のお話です。既に他界してしまいましたが古い写真とビデオを見つけたので、投稿したいと思って書いております。
この投稿は柴犬の小梅と北海道犬の白眉へ捧げたいと思います。
子供の頃から柴犬が飼いたいという夢を持っていました。母が子供の頃に犬に噛まれた経験があるためトラウマになったのでしょうね〜、絶対にペットを飼うことはできませんでした。それに両親はとても忙しいかった理由もあります。
なので、自分は結婚したら絶対に柴犬を飼うのだって思っていました。
主人と自分はしばらく日本に住んでいて、初めて柴犬を見せた時、ディンゴみたいだね〜と主人が言っていました。（ディンゴとはオーストラリアの野生犬みたいなものです。）オーストラリアに戻って主人に自分の夢を話して彼は賛成してくれました。
早速、柴犬をオーストラリアで探し始めましたが、なかなか見つかりません。今でしたら簡単なのかもしれませんが、やっと見つけたブリーダーはビクトリア州、自分達が住んでいるのはニューサウスウェールズ州だったので車で８−９時間。
メールでブリーダーに連絡を取り、メールの返事がぜひ、子犬に会いに来ませんかと、なので早速ビクトリア州まで柴犬の子犬に会いに行きました。その時、小梅を抱いていいよって言われたので、ビクビクしながら小梅を抱えたら、その後すぐに小梅にオシッコをかけられました（笑）。その後ブリーダーとは小梅を引き取るまで連絡を取り合い、メールに小梅の写真を添付、今日はこれだけご飯を食べたとか、これだけ遊んだとかをたくさん情報をくれました。早く引き取り日が来ないかな〜とまるで子供の様にワクワクしながら待っていましたよ〜。
その日が来ました。引き取る前日にビクトリア州には着いていて、一泊をして、朝のうちには小梅を引き取りに行きました。ブリーダーの方は少し泣いていましたね。短い時間だったかもしれませんが、愛着があったのでしょう。小梅の方は早く行こうぜって感じでしたね（笑）
長いドライブの始まりです。私たちは小梅が鳴くのではないかと心配していましたが全く心配する必要なし、ほぼ寝てました（笑）。クーンクーンと鳴き始めた時は退屈だから出せ！って。なので、素敵な公園を見つけてお昼兼と散歩等で車を止めて、日差しも暖かなのでゆっくりと散歩をしました。初めての大きな世界に飛び出した小梅、怖がらず、ただ暖かい日差しをエンジョイしていました。
小梅の気も晴れたので、又長いドライブに戻り小梅はまた寝に戻り（笑）、自分家にあと1時間位かな〜というところでまたクーンクーンとオシッコかも思い車を止め、暗い中で散歩とオシッコでしばらくあちこち歩いたのですが、ただの小梅の退屈（笑）なのでまた車を走りさせた、その時私は小梅を自分の腿に乗せていました。車を走らせて５分後……又おしっこを（笑）。やっと家につき、冬だったので家の中は寒く、薪を炊いて小梅が寒くない様にして、小梅に彼女の寝どころを紹介し、しばらく様子を見て、小梅も疲れていたのでしょうすぐにグーグー寝てしまいました。
続く……
