ylotheaussie

[ylotheaussie]

How I first came to be a dog person without ever owning a dog

I've always loved dogs. As long as I remember. But my family, although we lived in a house with a garden and in perfect location to have a dog, was never fond of dogs. Instead we had always had just that one cat. And however many times I raised this topic, I got the classic it's a big responsibility and daily effort etc. I am grateful for my parents though that they didn't let me have a dog. After all, it is a big responsibility and effort, I didn't realize that in the very beginning. And it led me to become creative and bold to still be able to spend my time with dogs.

How I walked random dogs from the next block for some years

At some point, me and my sister and our friends from the block started seeing this middle-aged woman with her 2 dogs. One was older, the other one young and a bit crazy due her age. The lady sometimes walked with the dogs past our house, so me and my friends sometimes stayed outside and waited for the dogs to come with the lady. We got to pat them, sometimes even hold the leash for a little while, but we couldn't go outside of our agreed territory, because #rules.

They looked something like a Hovawart and the Estrella Mountain dog, but were in fact mixed breed. We later found out the Hovawart (called Silli) was a stray, adopted by the lady when she gave birth to pups in an abandoned building and she found new owners to all, leaving the mother to herself because noone wanted that dog. She also kept one puppy called Väntu.

As time went by, we were allowed to join in on the walks with the lady. We found out where she lived, it was a small apartment building with joint garden with the neighbours, so dogs couldn't be free-roaming at all times. Eventually started to hang out there some more, and later also were allowed to walk the dogs alone. Väntu at some point also gave birth to an unexpected litter, as the lady couldn't afford them to be neutralized all at once, and it was at that time there was a lot of stray dogs still on the streets (around 2006-2009 in EE), so even though she had them in her garden, chained or in outside crates, with high fences, some males still made it in just in time to create new life. From Väntu's litter, the lady kept one male dog called Johnny. The rest of the dogs she managed to find new homes. Eventually all dogs got neutralized.

When my sister and our friends kind of grew out of it, I kept going alone. For a couple of years I went there on Saturday and Sunday mornings to walk the dogs. Sometimes the lady went to the countryside to visit family, so I went in and took the dogs on a walk (3 huge dogs, alone!😅😅) 2x a day and kept them fed and watered. I taught them some tricks intuitively, and formed good bonds. I was really enjoying it. Now when I think back to it, I was one crazy little girl, bold enough to walk three dogs alone on the streets, but I don't really remember any accidents or bad raps coming out of it. I just have fond memories of the dogs always being so happy to see me and us enjoying our walks together.

At some point I paid less visits as things with school and other hobbies got more serious. But then, I found my way back to dogs when I started volunteering in a local animal shelter. But that story, I'll keep it in our next post.

[ylotheaussie]

Welcome to Ülo's blog!

It is Wednesday, the 9th of August 2023. Somehow, in the middle of the day I get a strong sense to start a blog on Ü. Because I feel like I have things to share from this journey of becoming a first time dogowner, becoming a dog person, sharing stuff that actually led to Ülo that don't really fit Instagram's feed, and finally, perhaps posting a couple of videos of Ü starting out. I think my future me would be proud of myself, for doing all of the work, because I'm a very nostalgic person and some of the things I tend to forget. Who knows, perhaps one day we'll get a second Aussie. To make room for more stories and memories to be recorded, other than just on Instagram where I share a lot of nice pictures of our little Ü, I decided to take on another commitment and start a blog on Ü. I won't share it yet though, perhaps it ruins the vibe for me, as I'm constantly thorn between wanting to share more and at the same time keeping everything private. Also, I'm not sure how consistent I'm going to be with it.😅

In this blog though, I plan to share my journey of becoming a dog owner to this wonderful work of Art called Ülo. I want to share all of it - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sometimes I feel like instagram is not ready for some ugly or negative stuff to be shared, I also can't fit my stories sometimes into 2200 characters limit, so be it.

We're going to start from the very beginning though, I'm going to share my story - how did I even become into dogs, why it took me almost three decades to actually become a dogowner and what has this journey come to be so far.

This is Ü today, on a random photo I took this morning when I was about to start work. I love him so so so much!