Hair hair everywhere

Shinza


We got a new dog in April. Our other dog, a miniature dachshund named Barney, who we had for 12 years, died on Feb. 12. He had diabetes for over a year and it finally got the best of him, shutting down his organs. Anyway, in April, one of my students was looking to find someone to adopt her dog. I took one look at the flyer she had made up and decided that this dog was for us. She is a Shiba Inu (which is actually a Japenese breed of dog) named Xin Zi Guo Mei. Yeah, that's right, Xin Zi Guo Mei. I think it's a Chinese name because the student is Chinese. They called her Shinza for short and so we decided that would be her full name in our family. We brought her home on April 21.





On April 28, after exactly one week of living in our house, she promptly decided that she needed to explore her new neighborhood and took off down the block as we tried to let her into the house. She was gone for 11 hours and I was scared. I called the former owners to inform them about what had happened because I wondered if she might try to find her way back "home" (or at least to the home she had known for almost 4 years). But eventually, 11 hours later, she came back to her new home. We spent a lot of time during the day searching for her and did actually see her at two different times but were unable to coax her back to our house. I had left at about 6pm to go to prom and my husband called me at about 8pm yelling into the phone "we got her, she's home!!!".





This dog sheds so much more than Barney ever did. I guess he did shed, but we certainly didn't notice it so much because he had little short red hairs. Shinza has longer hair and about a month ago, if you gently grabbed her coat, chances are that you would get a handful of hair. I think the shedding has slowed as of late. I hope so.



I really shouldn't complain. She is a very sweet dog and I have fallen in love with her. She loves to be petted and she loves to play ball and frisbee in the yard. At night, if my hubby and I don't go to bed at the same time, she will lay on one side of our bed until we are both there. Then I guess she thinks it's simply too crowded to try to fight for a spot! She is a nice addition to our family. However, I have found that it is difficult to go into a store and buy merchandise with a Shiba Inu on it. A dachshund was EASY, but not this breed. I am able to find some stuff on e-bay though, so that's good. I still miss my buddy Barney though. He was my first baby and will always have a special place in my heart.