Carbon

For years I have always wanted a big dog. A dog to go running with and to play fetch with. Our last dog, Maggie was shitzu, and as we once heard on the radio, "the breed of dog with the least amount of intelligence". In other words the only thing she learned was to be house trained, and that took her two years before she was consistent.

When we found out we were moving to Bogotá, my parents told me if we were allowed to, I could get a dog there. I did not spend much time looking into breeds until a few months before we were said to leave. I researched many breeds, but never acted on any of them, and we left.

Bogotá is a dog city. Dog walkers will have up to 12 dogs at the same time, and people are always out walking dogs by themselves. Although in Bogotá, the dogs are different. Almost every dog is extremely socialized and is happy to make friends and play with any dog that is passing by. Only a few dogs bark and jump when near other dogs, but the majority just want to play nicely.

With Bogotá's vast population of canines, we thought it would be simple to find a dog. It wasn't.

Siberian Husky was the breed of dog we decided on. A female Siberian Husky. We called everywhere, and no one had Siberian Huskies. Part of our difficulties was the language. We wrote out scripts for our phone calls, but were left stranded if the person we were talking to strayed from the conversation we had anticipated.

After weeks of this we made a call to a Siberian Husky breeder, and found out she was not a Siberian Husky breeder. In fact she hates Siberian Huskies, but what she did breed was Belgian Shepherds. When I had researched breeds I had stumbled upon the breed and like what I saw. We jumped at the opportunity and bought the one puppy she had for sale. He is a male Groenendale Belgian Shepherd, 4 months old.

All the names we had been thinking of had been for a female Siberian Husky, not a male Belgian Shepherd. If you have seen both dogs you will know the coloring is the opposite, Belgian Shepherds are pure black, while Siberian Huskies are white, tan and cream colored. When we were thinking of names, one name had come up that fit our new puppy perfect. Carbon.

We have now had Carbon for two months, and it has been great. He was sick and we did not what was wrong with him for a while, but once we gave him the right medicine it made the world of a difference. He has been happier and easier to house train. Before we got Carbon he lived on a farm, so all the noises of the city scared him a lot at first. Now he is getting better, but he still really doesn't like horses.

Carbon is a great dog and is really fun to have. I'm glad we decided to get him.

-Damon