One Year On

   Today, we celebrate the 1st anniversary of Lucky coming to live with us.  And what a year it's been!  In some ways, it's flown by; yet, we feel as if we've had Lucky here with us forever.  So it's a good day to reflect on the changes that have taken place for us in the last 12 months.
  Lucky's first day in town was hard for him, we know that now.  Because we didn't know him very well at the time, we felt like he settled in remarkably well, but now that we understand and know him inside out, we can look at the photos of his first day with us, and see a very scared boy.

   He likes us, but he's not at home.  Also, the strange sounds coming from outside are frightening him.  He was a country dog, and he's never heard sirens, busses, motorbikes, or just people walking past outside of his door.  He's not at ease.

Heather from Posh Pets was a saviour.  She met with us on day one, and twice a week thereafter.  Soon, we were making progress.

   As our knowledge of his character grew stronger, Lucky began to react to and interact with us as his main people.  But looking back, again, we can see that this took time.  Though he seemed to like us very much, the 'bond' took time, and certainly didn't come automatically. 

   The one aspect we waited the longest for was a strong recall.  It wasn't nice keeping Lucky on the lead, even when we were out of the city center, but it was necessary for the first few months.  Lucky had form as a bolter, and we couldn't run the risk of him coming to harm.  But, once we had purchased the 'beeping' training collar, everything fell into place, and he was soon running free!

The 'bond', which Heather had told us would take time, had arrived.

   Once the recall was in place, it was smooth sailing all the way.  Our walks and adventures became longer and much more fun.  And we moved further afield, to places we'd loved with our old boy Truman.

The top of The Crags

Longniddry

And, our all time favourite, Tyninghame.

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   But most of our best moments with Lucky have been quiet times at home.  For such a young pup, and an energetic boy, he's always been happiest when the three of us are at home together.  Comfort is his main aim, and physical closeness remains the top priority.  We don't complain.

We do this,

a touch of this,

a healthy dose of this,

And plenty of this, too.

*

   This incredible dog has completely changed our life, and we couldn't be happier.  We're so grateful to his loving, original family for their selfless decision to let Lucky move to the city, and live with us. It was difficult for them.  They adored Lucky.  We honour that every day, and we do our very best by him.  We haven't had a bad day yet.

   For our anniversary, we bought Lucky a brand-new African beaded collar, which, I've been told, Ridgeback's wear in their native environment.  He looks so handsome in it.

Today.

Here's to many happy years together.  We know that he's happy. 

   

Secret Garden

   We have a splendid selection of walks to choose from, but we always seem to end up somewhere in East Lothian, where Scot grew up.  Lucky enjoys being by the coast, as do we.
   Lucky and I took a taxi to work on a rainy Monday recently, and the driver told me about an East Lothian walk that he and his dog like very much.  He didn't give us much information apart from directions, so we gave it a go last Sunday.
   We drove to Aberlady, and parked at a small farm shop.  The walk began on a small path behind the car park.

   It turned out to be an estate, Gosford, which we'd heard of, but never seen before.  It's an enormous, walled property, which stretches all the way from Longniddry to Aberlady.  The views were jaw dropping.

   At one point, we turned a corner, and after 100 metres or so, we came upon this.

Wow.

   This is our 100th post here on Lucky Days.  This time last year, we were already visiting Lucky and his original family, very much hoping that this boy would be coming to live with us.  In some ways, it feels like the time has passed in an instant, but in others, like we've known Lucky our whole lives. 

   This has been a good year; one of our best yet.