Zoey and Rhyn's Excellent Adventures: We Meet "Asher" for the First Time

First Meeting: Sunday, August 7, 2016.

Picked Phyllis up at 11:30 and we (Mark, too, of course) met Lori (the foster) and "Asher" the puppy at Petco in Richfield (494/Lyndale). He tried to crawl under Zoey and she vociferously told him off, scared him to death, he peed, poor baby.

Asher was born June 8, 2016 to a mom already in foster care. She is described as a Miniature Australian Shepherd (OK, I know, there's no such thing), and his dad a German Shepherd Dog. We'll see, in the end, because of course we'll do DNA testing on the puppy much like we did Zoey. Wisdom Panel DNA tests are fantastic and not too expensive.

Possible names for puppy: Duke ("Duck!" I love the Duck Subaru commercials), Malik, Ferro. Then, Mark came up with "Rin". But not as in "Rin Tin Tin". Mark was thinking about his favorite song, "Rhiannon", by Fleetwood Mac, and was trying to work it into a boy's name. With his fondness for odd spellings, it started out at Rhin and then quickly became "Rhyn" (his car license plate is "Phred", from a childhood dog's name given by his mom). The name is cute, it's fitting, and I've found myself using it as I talk to people about getting this puppy.
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Oh my god, a puppy! Didn't I just go through this three and a half years ago? I have already figured out that "googling" or checking anywhere on the Internet for puppy advice is certain madness. 1,000,000,000 ways to do one thing and half of those are differing opinions, and most are incorrect. I will stick with common sense and what I know worked with Zoey (and continues to work) and quit freaking myself out.

Here is Rhyn's mom, Freya. She came from a puppy mill in Iowa. She's been adopted by someone in the Underdog Rescue family. That puppy you see is one of the four (large) guys she gave birth to on June 8, 2016.


Freya 2016

Here's a couple of iPhone photos of little 8 week old Rhyn. I will be taking better photos once he's here, of course. Look at those paws! Lori the foster (I think) says maybe he'll get to 50 pounds. I hope not. I mean, sure, but a little smaller would be nice. I'm spoiled with Zoey being only 35 pounds.