In the Land of Kiwis with No Catahoula

And so here it is! Our New Zealand blog to keep all our family, friends and canine specialists happy and informed :)
So we are here... we arrived in Wellington New Zealand on Wednesday January 11, 2012, exactly 7 weeks to the day after arriving in Australia, our first lag since leaving Canada.

But still... no Catahoula :(

The Catahoula I speak of is our dog Huff, a 2.5year old Catahoula Leopard dog mix who we rescued a year ago with the help of Catahoula Rescue in Ottawa, Canada. Huff has led an interesting life. Born in Kentucky, her and her sister ended up in a kill shelter before they were graciously rescued and brought to Canada by Catahoula Rescue. . Ironically, Huff arrived in Canada last year on my 28th Birthday, and she is quite simply the best Birthday gift I have ever received. On February 18, 2011, our lives changed forever, when we adopted this timid and quirky girl, and we never looked back.  Two months later, over dinner and a bottle of wine, (ironically at a restaurant named the Wellington Gastro Pub..) Trent and I made another life changing decision, to move across the globe to New Zealand...and of course, Huff  would come too. What followed was 6-8 months of planning, paperwork, vet visits, home sales, and an overall loss of sleep.

But somehow we made it through. And with the help of some amazing friends (Barb and Tanya) we were able to travel Australia for seven weeks, while Huff spent some more time in Canada with some of her favourite dogs, Rocky, Ava and Lily. I think she was on vacation too :)  And now.. she is only 5 days away from taking the greatest trip of her life to New Zealand, not bad for a dog who was in a shelter just over a year ago!

 So the schedule goes like this:

January 18, 2012 (CAN time): Huff flies Ottawa to Vancouver, Vancouver to Auckland, and Auckland to Wellington ( with long rests in between for walks and feeding)

January 20, 2012 ( NZ time) Huff arrives and will spend 10 days at a quarantine kennel where we can visit!

January 30, 2012: home with us again :)


As for us, things are good, we will spend another week in Wellington before heading 50km to the beautiful Paraparaumu, our new home. More to come....

Heather