SJUZI

November, in 2015, when I decided to start my 4 Beloved Paws organisation, I reached out to few shelters. Sjuzi's shelter was the first one to respond that they will gladly collaborate. By then, seeing how Josie loves to play with other dogs, I was considering getting her a sibling. It was going to be one from a shelter this time, for sure. Since that thought started forming in my head, I have seen several dogs, I was interested in, but for one or another reason it did not work out.

In January 2016 I saw a post of a tiny puppy, in the same shelter we agreed to collaborate with. She was just a month old and looked exactly like Josie! Her mom, who looked like a border coli, was left at the shelter - pregnant - because her owner was "emigrating". Her mom was JUST 11 months old! A baby herself...Sjuzi's mom got shelter's favourite status, she was a dog that can smile and was doing that a lot. Milka ( her name) had only one puppy, Sjuzi, born already in the shelter.

As it was with Josie, it was love at first sight. I contacted the shelter to see my options in reserving her, because usually puppies find homes immediately and are not kept in the shelter long, due to all the risk of diseases. But for me, they made an exception. That's when the 2,5 months long waiting started.

I received updates and was preparing for my trip to Lithuania. From first pictures it seemed, like she is going to be a copy of Josie. But already after the second month, it was clear, she will be a skinny, tall version instead. She also looked nothing like her mom.

First photo is of Josie as a puppy, the rest of Sjuzi as a puppy. Resemblance is really there.

The pick up...

I was very lucky, that her mandatory quarantine time after vaccination, ended just in time for my birthday. So . on February 26th (my birthday), 2016, I travelled from Odense (Denmark), to Copenhagen airport, carrying only hand baggage, filled with treats for shelter dogs. Few hours later, I landed in Lithuania, where I was picked up by my best friend, with a handfull of my favourite, yellow roses. We travelled directly to my home town, to the shelter. That's where I met my skinny child for the first time. That was also where I met everyone from the shelter for the first time. A reporter was waiting for me, from a national Lithuanian TV, to make a segment about me and Sjuzi and my organisation. This was beggining of it all! It is still my favourite day and favourite birthday in my whole life, I am pretty sure it won't be topped. I am not one to celebrate my birthday, but since then I always celebrate it as the day I got my Sjuzi. It was amazing and overwhelming.

Same day, through Skype, I got another dog adopted, she left soon after. Sjuzi's mom was adopted in the same month, just few weeks before. I had ideas adopting her as well, but she got lucky before I arrived.

I picked up a skin and bones Bambi, that I was afraid to break! I have never had someone so tiny. To prevent her getting sick, before I pick her up, she was utterly guarded, therefore did not get to build up muscles enough. But she was healthy, happy and with teeth sharp as blades. She - just like her mom - knew how to smile.

I stayed in Lithuania only for a day. I landed Friday and we flew back Sunday. In the meantime, everywhere we went, she was atracking so much attention and making people wonder how beauties like that could be in the shelter. We have spread the "adopt, don't shop" message wide, in those few days and continue to do so now 6 years and going :)

This is how we left the shelter. The last photos are of Sjuzi's mom.

Pinky and The Brain...

Sjuzi was perfection the whole long trip. Both, in the plain and in the train and in the bus, she just slept on me or in her travel bag, without any complaints. Picking up Sjuzi, was the first time I have ever left Josie alone over night. She stayed with my neighbour and my best friend. She was doing fine and it was just two nights, but Josie is emotional and stubborn (just like me), so when I came back, she was angry on me, instead of being excited to see me :)

She got very excited upon seeing Sjuzi, overly excited and was trying to play with her, but the body mass was no match. In fact, Sjuzi was so fragile, that for a while I had to carry her in my bag, until she build up enough muscles.

Josie was excited the first few hours, but then she realised that this intruder is not going anywhere and lost her interest She became visibly unhappy with Sjuzi. Sjuzi though, from day one was fearless happy go lucky and very persistent.

For the next few weeks, Sjuzi was a annoying little sister, following Josie everywhere, bitting her ears, stealing her toys, trying to sleep with her. Josie was moving away from her at all times and showing zero interest. After few weeks, Josie started not moving away when Sjuzi lays down next to her. After a week more, Josie brought her toy to Sjuzi and was observing how she is playing.

When Sjuzi started building up some muscles, Josie started trying to play with her outside. Only outside. She was running and Sjuzi catching, but never catching up. That was until Sjuzi's legs grew telescopic and she not only caught up, she ran faster than JOsie! You could clearly see Josie's shock in the face, that her little sister beat her. After that, she accepted her fully at home as well.

So, NO, this was not a love from sight from Josie's side, like it was from mine. It was a long and extremely fascinating process, of how Sjuzi stole Josie's heart. They have been inseparable ever since. They became Pinky and The Brain, except in this case, Sjuzi is the brain. They have many cute habits but one of the strangest is - if they get a bone that is for a long chewing, half way through, Sjuzi brings her bone to Josie and exchanges it. Even though it's the same thing, they have been doing this since early on.