If you follow this blog, you already know about our Corgi, Winston. If you are not familiar with his work, check out this post Winston, Not Your Majesty’s Corgi  Now it’s time to meet the newest member of our Crew, Odin Kirk Nicely.  Odin is an 8 month old Aussiedoodle, who has never met a toy he didn’t like and is always ready for action.

That Face!

It all started tragically enough when we lost our beloved dog, Loki.  We were all beyond sad and the prospect of getting another dog seemed impossible.  But, Winston (aka Super Corgi) took the loss especially hard; and, had what I swear was a bout of hysterical deafness.  He appeared to be suddenly deaf. Loud noises which used to send him into high alert now elicited no reaction from him whatsoever.

We took him the vet only to be told there was nothing wrong with his ears, except for the not working part of course. We thought maybe he had been deaf for a while and Loki served as his hearing ear dog, but we just didn’t know.  It was clear, like us, Winston had a huge void in his life, so we decided it was time to start the search for another dog.

This is where the cheese gets a bit more binding.  My husband, for some reason unknown to me had his heart set on a Vizla, a short-haired, hunting dog.  My daughter wanted, again for some unknown reason, a Bearded Collie, a long-haired, herding dog.  You could not choose two more divergent breeds of dogs if you tried.  OK Mom, you’re up. Go ahead and try to please everyone.

Bearded Collie

Vizla

Enter the Aussiedoodle.

I began researching, trying to find any rescue groups that might have either of these types of dogs, no luck.  I looked through Petfinder daily looking for something that might please everyone.  Finally, I found a Australian Shepard puppy from a hobby breeder, that coincidentally lived 5 miles from my mother in rural Ohio.  So I called my mom and asked her to drive by to make sure this was not some horrible puppy mill.

An hour later, my mother confirmed this was just a lovely small farm, with several happy dogs that greeted her when she pulled in the driveway.  I texted the lady, only to find that the puppy was claimed a few hours earlier. However, she had a standard Poodle that was going to have Aussiedoodle puppies in a few months. Interesting.  So we had a family meeting and decided we could be the kind of family that would have a Doodle, and reserved one of the puppies.

Fast forward to December, when I received this picture.  Cookie had her puppies, 4 girls, 4 boys. A big pile of cuteness.

Puppies!

More Puppies!

A week later we chose boy #4 to be our Doodle.  We named him Odin, as a nod to our beloved Loki.  If you don’t get the reference, I suggest viewing, Thor: Ragnorak, a fine film, both entertaining and educational (sort of).  His middle name is Kirk, according to my husband that is for Captain James T. Kirk.  If you ask me, it is for my favorite Gilmore Girls character.  Plus, we all love the actor, Bob Odenkirk, so it works on many levels.

Remember when I sent my mom to scope out the joint?  Well, guess who else got Doodle fever and adopted boy #1,  a fine lad who is now named Sherman.  Sherman was the largest puppy in the litter and has grown into a giant goofball.

A few months later, this little family reunion happened in my living room. There is nothing cuter than two 3-month old Aussiedoodles.

That’s a whole lot of adorable, am I right??

Odin may be grown now, but he is still all puppy.  He has been through puppy training class, and will be heading back to school later this month.  His bark has not completely developed yet so he has what can only be described as a dog scream. It is very jarring when he decides to make an impromptu announcement.

I will not go so far as to say Winston was thrilled to have a new puppy to care for, but he dutifully adopted Odin as his apprentice and showed him the ropes.  Amazingly enough, his ability to hear returned, shortly after the little black and white menace arrived. Miracles do happen.

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A few weeks ago, Sherman came for another play date.  This time it poured rain all day, but they did not let it dampen their fun.  They ran, they rolled, they wrestled for hours without stopping. It was exhausting just to watch.  After 20 minutes we abandoned them in the backyard and sought shelter in the house.  About an hour later, we looked out the back door to see this ridiculous scene.

I hope you enjoyed Odin’s story, thank you and have a nice day.