Rainier says Hi!

Meet Rainier!!
The newest addition to our family.
Rainier is a Landseer. Many kennel clubs consider this breed to be the black and white version of the Newfoundland Dog.

The Newfoundland, or Newfies as they are often referred to, has long been my favorite dog. We have always discussed getting a Newfie. However, there were several reasons why we never got one. First, with the great number of abandoned dogs in shelters, it seemed really irresponsible to go out and buy a dog. And these dogs are not small. It would be difficult to keep them in a small place. We even talked about getting one while in Singapore, but that would be very cruel. These dogs love the cold, they have a double coat and even with MY single coat (some would say I have more than a single coat), the weather was intolerable for me in Singapore. The dog would suffer in Singapore. So, we never got one... till now!!

On Tuesday, February 21, 2012, Jessica asked me if I wanted a Newfie. It surprised me because we really weren't planning on getting another dog till a little later on, when either Jessica's business picked up or when I found a job.

Well, apparently, there was an ad on craigslist where the owner was giving up her Newfie... well, for $200. Jessica had emailed her and she had actually called back. First step in verifying that this was not a scam. The lady said that she had a 9mth old Newfie and that she had only had the dog for 1 week, however, her son was allergic to the dog and she needed to get rid of the dog. The lady also said that it was a purebred Newfie, she had some papers from the breeder and that she needed to get rid of the dog ASAP. However, the lady said that there was someone else who had replied before us and that we were second in line. That seemed to be the end of the story.

A few hours later, the lady called back and said that the people ahead of us couldn't make it to see the dog. And therefore, we now moved to first in line. However, everything that happened after this point failed to convince me that this was still not a scam. The lady wanted to meet us in less than half an hour at the Costco in Tacoma. Tacoma is at least a half hour drive from our home, if not more, especially during rush hour... it was 6pm. We managed to get to Costco by about 6:45pm. The lady arrived at near 7pm and there came this clumsy but extremely friendly Landseer. The lady had A PIECE of paper saying that this dog came from some breeder in the midwest, but anyone could have printed that piece of paper on their home computer. The lady was Russian with such a strong accent, we couldn't even figure out what the dog's name was. Apparently, she had 7 children and one of them is very allergic to the dog. So, she had to give up the dog. Well, I took the dog for a short walk while Jessica discussed the details of the dog with her. And 10 mins and $200 later, we had adopted OREO. Everything happened so fast, we had to run into Costco to get dog food. We had other stuff left over from when we had Shasta, however, we had no food.

Well, unfortunately, the name OREO just didn't seem to work for us... so, she is now Rainier.

On February 22, 2012, we brought her to the vet bright and early next morning and found out that Rainier was not microchipped nor spayed. Well, honestly, I am still not fully convinced today that she was not stolen/found and sold to us by that Russian lady. However, since we weren't able to find the real owner, should this really be the case, Rainier is now part of our family.