The Diary of Dougal

Posted on April 6, 2021 by Ber Giandomenico

Meet Dougal! We invite you to share in his story and adventures.

The Beginning:

Our cat Neo lived for almost twenty years. He was a handsome fellow who had many (mis) adventures,...but that’s another story ...for another day. We all loved him dearly and the decision to say goodbye was a very, very difficult one, but we knew he was in great discomfort. We shed many tears on that day, but we also cherished the countless happy memories.

We had always told our children that it wouldn’t be fair on Neo to get a younger puppy since he was such an elderly gentleman. When we said goodbye we waited for a time and then put it out there that we were interested in adopting a dog. I knew that throughout the pandemic both dogs and cats were being adopted at record levels so I expected the whole process to take months but, through a stroke of serendipity, we heard of Dougal. His huge soulful eyes and mischievous air had us all hooked.

Dougal (it means “little dark stranger” in Irish) is a Cunucu breed and he comes from Aruba. On the island these dogs are often left to fend for themselves and several rescues have been established. We saw the profile of our little man on the Sgt. Pepper’s Friends site. We instantly fell in love.
We submitted an application and kept everything crossed. After some back and forth we finally got the final word…Dougal was flying over to live with us! My husband and I were giddy with excitement, but we decided to keep the final word from our kids. It would be a lovely surprise.

And so it was, on that fateful and chilly night, we set off for Logan Airport in Boston. We had fibbed to our kids and said that we were picking up a friend of a friend. They were a little baffled, bit they took it in stride.
My husband ran in to arrivals to fetch Dougal from the very kind people who had accompanied him to us. He was tiny, nervous and shivering. It had been a very busy day for an eleven-week old pup!
As we waited in the car the kids had no idea what awaited them ...they were completely “gobsmacked” when they saw Dougal. I had tears in my eyes as they held him.
That first night was pretty magical as we got to know him…and he got to know us! The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Dougal is slowly, but surely gaining a little more confidence every day. He now barks at the Fedex guy. We think he thinks he is protecting us…and it couldn’t be any cuter.

We are just getting started though! There is so much to do and lots of training. I plan on trying to record it all. I’m a first time doggo Mom and I’m eager to memorialize it.

I really hope you’ll join me in our Dougal escapades.

There are going to be a lot of learning moments…and a lot of fun...’til next time.