The Maremma Diaries - Part 1 (Dec 2007)

I'm going to take you on a journey of what I'm sure will be trials and tribulations of owning a Maremma puppy and how she fits in with our family over the next few issues, hopefully it will make for good reading and you might get a laugh along the way with us!!

Where do I start? We decided to add another dog back into our “pack” after a few years of just having our dog and 3 cats, we had another dog but unfortunately she was killed by snakebite so the decision to get another dog was a big one for us, especially considering our Malamute Anook has been by himself for a few years. But our neighbour recently got a puppy and Anook took to her with such gentleness that we thought – it’s time !!
Why choose a Maremma? I saw them once on an episode of Burkes Backyard and seeing as we are lucky enough to have the space in Perth as we live on 2 acres, we made the decision to get one. Hmm, wasn’t as easy as I thought however in locating one, I did some research on the net and quickly realised that there weren’t any breeders in WA, so I tracked down Sue Buckman from Allarme Maremma’s who originally I contacted to see if she could assist me with locating a contact for the Maremmas in rescue. Initially, we thought we would rehome one but that wasn’t feasible with the dog being rehomed in another state. Thankfully, Sue was so helpful and I found we really hit it off, so I asked her if she was planning on any litters soon. She advised that she was planning on one this year with her dog Cassie and as luck would have it, we were planning on holidaying in Tassie and decided to stay an extra day in Melbourne to meet Sue and the dogs. Darran and I felt like we were going for an interview as “prospective parents” but once we arrived Sue made us feel welcome and we had a great couple of hours, talking about our dogs, what we were looking for and just generally getting to know one another. The dogs sized us up immediately and then stole my heart, especially Cassie, such a gentle soul, loves cuddles, then there’s Snow, the big “lion” as I like to think of him and the jester “Hope” well of course, she’s still in that “teenage” phase of her life and she was goofing off but all fantastic temperaments and we knew then that this was where we wanted to get our pup from. Sue gave us so much information and shared her photo’s and her experiences before we bid farewell and it was back to Perth for the long anticipated wait to see whether or not everything would go as planned !! Then the news came that there had been a successful mating and now it was just a waiting game until we were certain she was in pup, with many emails going back and forth, Sue was pretty confident Cassie was in pup and then it was confirmed that the scan had come back and yes she was in pup – Oh my god – how excited were we? Emails crossed back and forth the country with countless updates on how she was doing. We decided to work on the name already and we wanted something easy but not just your run of the mill dog name. We found out from Sue that this would be her 3rd litter so the pedigree names would start with the letter "C" so we had that to work with and of course I wanted to keep the "Italian" connection as well and after much debate we settled on Allarme Caya Libellula. Libellula is Italian for Dragonfly and as I collect anything Dragonfly I thought it was appropriate.
Then on a Sunday morning I woke with a text message that said – “check your computer, we have pups. We have 7 so far - 3 girls & 4 boys" And so it began, I've never had kids myself but I felt like the expectant mother - waiting for more news - and more photo's. The final count - 5 boys & 3 girls, and we knew that one of those girls would be ours !! They all look so cute and it's been interesting so far to see their progress and how quickly they've grown. She is due to come to us around early December but as my partner works away offshore, and will be away we want to make sure that she bonds with both of us, so we've asked her arrival to be delayed until early Jan so he can be home and can spend 3 weeks solid with her settling in.
Unfortunately, whilst we've been through this up and down process, one of our pets sadly passed away - our 2nd oldest cat Blue - god rest his soul. He was such a good mate of 15 years and unfortunately he just got too old to go on and gave up his zest for life. This past couple of weeks for us has been terribly difficult, what with the birth of new life and the passing of an old life, an old mate. It makes you really think, and you always think they will be there wil you.
Needless to say, ourselves, 1 dog and 2 cats are all looking forward to having a new bundle of energy racing around the place to cheer us all up!!