Shio the Shiba » The Story of a Shiba in NY

We’re happy to be able to announce that Goo Goo2 was adopted last night!

Even happier to announce that she was adopted by our family!

She has been immediately renamed to Emi (pronounced: eh-me), after her shy Shiba smile.

Introducing Emi

Thoughts on Fostering: As we’ve mentioned before, we jumped at the opportunity to foster when we heard about the NJ-22 Shibas that were being rescued. We knew that our Shiba rescue organizations would need foster homes to help. The only thing we asked for in our NYC Shiba Rescue foster application was to have a dog that was healthy because we didn’t want Shio’s health to be compromised. I also politely asked for a young dog, if available, because I wanted to make sure that it would be easy for our foster dog to be adopted out in case fostering became too overwhelming for us. I braced for the prospect of receiving the worst match possible: a dominant, possibly aggressive, rude, untrained, male puppy. I prepared two crates for time outs. Found exercise pens and baby gates to section off areas of our apartment. I imagined the two dogs fighting constantly over everything, starting with territory. Then I waited for two weeks for Emi to arrive. What we actually got was a shy, scared, submissive, trained female who became increasingly playful as her spay wound healed. The most perfect possible match for Shio. A big plus is that she’s also very affectionate and often wants to be next to me, whether it be following me or simply laying her head on my lap while we watched tv. She stole my heart in plain sight. They’ve had a total of two fights, once over food and once over us, since she arrived.

The first three days after she arrived were most stressful because we were learning about her and she was of us. We didn’t know whether she was potty trained or not. She didn’t trust us. Shio thought Emi would steal all his food and wolfed down anything that was edible, even once swallowing a 3 inch slice of pork whole and consequently puking it up, also whole, 5 minutes later. Lesson learned for him. Eventually we figured each other out and lived in happy harmony. During the first 3 weeks we didn’t think we would adopt her because she wasn’t playing with Shio and knowing that we were the bridge to finding her forever home made it all the worthwhile. We watched her explore her new environment with tail down and slowly learning how to play with toys through Shio’s lead. When she arrived, running two laps around our living room would wear her out. As she built muscle mass, we watched her hop from chair to couch and run circles around Shio. She’s now even able to hop up onto our 2 ft high bed without a running start! Seeing all of this, made us understand why and how families are able to invite a newly rescued dog into their home and rehabilitate them. It is so rewarding to watch them transform into happy and healthy dogs.

Shio grooming Emi's rain freckles after walking in the rain.

Thoughts on Failing Fostering 101: Emi’s adoption came as a surprise to no one but me. Josh knew before she arrived in our foster care that we would wind up having a permanent second dog. My friends who have met Emi knew it would happen. FB and Twitter friends followed our story and even they knew. Me, I kept on looking for reasons not to keep her because I swore up and down that we wouldn’t keep our foster dog. I hate failing and going back on my word. At the end of the day, Emi never gave us a reason not to adopt her. She’s a perfect playmate for Shio and that’s what was most important for us. Waking up each morning to see them cuddled next to each other and watching them play all day and night was all we needed to affirm our decision. At the end of the day, our failing of Fostering 101 has led to our success of Family 101. Emi will have the best home possible for her and we’ve adopted the best second dog for us.

To celebrate Emi’s gotcha day, December 13th, 2011, we’d like to help raise money for NYC Shiba Rescue.

We’ll donate $5 for each comment* received on this website per household

from now until noon of Shio’s birthday, December 24th. 

Donations to the rescue can also be made through this website: http://nycshibarescue.org/2011/11/funds-needed-10-nj-22/

Can't run away from us... We gotcha Emi!

*Maximum donation of $200

No pack walk is complete without Shio’s protesting…

Photos taken with Leica M9, Summicron-M 35mm f/2. Processed with VSCO.

Photography Rant

The M9 is by far the best camera I have ever owned. I am not talking about technicals, because the D700 probably still, to this day, produces the best image file of any DSLR (excluding medium format, of course). The M9, however, is unique is 3 ways: 1) It is a camera, and nothing else. There is no video function, no autofocus, no matrix metering. It brings back the days when photography was a craft. 2) It is a rangefinder. I never thought it would make any difference to the way I see behind the lens prior to owning one. But it is different. 3) It packs a fullframe sensor into a very compact size — one that you can carry practically all the time.

I have been using VSCO since it launched. I am happy to say that it is the best product out there. Not only does it bring a more natural, film-like quality to digital images, it is a huge time-saver. I cannot recommend it more to our shiba friends. I know one of them agrees with me.