Blitzen

March of 2016 my husband and I went to volunteer with the elephants for a week at ENP. I had been there 2 years before and not only fell in love with the park and program, but the Thai dogs as well. We had recently had to put down one of our beloved dogs, and had a whole in our hearts where Ava used to be. We spent much of our free time hanging out with the dogs, and realized that it was not an overwhelming process to bring a new buddy home to the USA. Truly, I could have fallen in love with most of the dogs there, and really appreciated that they lived in family “packs” and not all separated and alone. Ping, formerly Blitzen was one of 8 pups born around Christmas time and was tucked under a platform while we were visiting with this one group of dogs. We scooped him up, he put his ears back and gave me a kiss (as if to say, you have finally arrived!) and the rest is history. Sabrina did a great job letting us know what was going on after we left, while we waited until there was a flight volunteer. It was had to wait, once we decided to adopt Ping, and leave him behind in Thailand, but the month went by quickly and I was able to drive to NYC (about 5 1/2 hours away) to pick him up. I was so worried about the long flight, but I have to say, Ping was in pretty good shape upon arrival! The first few weeks we all were adjusting, Ping was doing a lot of resource guarding and didn’t like the other two dogs. We actually kept them separated while they were in the house. They were all much happier together outside. He however, from the word go, LOVED every person that he met and the more snuggling the better! We crated him when we couldn’t keep an eye on him and at night. After three weeks he has made it into our bed, sleeping happily with one of my other dogs, and even goes BACK to bed after his breakfast and morning walk!We are still having a little issue with Ping trying to dominate my old male Eros (he is a 12yr old lab) it is less and less frequent and I feel they are working it out. Ping is on the furniture, on our bed and in our hearts forever. Taking a chance on someone, beast or human is a risk, but the rewards outweigh it ten fold.

Namaste,

Jen Forrester