Lucky/Kali and Bones/Kirby
Lucky/Kali and Bones/Kirby were nearly born into LRR when they came as part of Celia's litter of 10 two week old pups from the Cecil County, MD shelter. Mom had been abandoned by her owner when he discovered she was about to deliver, and within 24 hours of being at the shelter, she had her pups. LRR agreed to take Mom and pups, and one of our foster homes cared for them until the pups could be weaned and sent out in pairs to other LRR foster homes. It appeared that the litter had pure bred labs and some lab/pointer mixes. Bones (as in Lazy Bones since he was not the most active of the pups) was a very cute black male, but took awhile to really come into his personality. Touring a couple of foster homes and being in a St. Patty's Day parade brought him out of his shell, and he began to show a real interest in playing with the other dogs. Lucky was our little chocolate girl and runt of the litter. She was so named because not only was she the smallest, but her Mom had accidentally punctured her neck when she was moving her, causing the need for a little extra initial care. Perhaps because she was the littlest, she was also the feistiest. She was the little scrapper of the litter and gave us reason to suspect she would be the one most in need of obedience training. She seemed to fear nothing which made her quite the adventurer. The two pups were definitely different not only in looks but in personality. But, each had characteristics endearing to one of our adoptive homes who just couldn't decide between the two and finally settled on adopting them both. We knew that would be quite an undertaking (the pair was already 6 months), and admired them for their bravery! The "odd couple" did prove to give this family a run for their money (and sanity at times), but with dose of humor and realism, they knew it would take time to get them both settled and Through their puppiness as reflected in this email:
Dear LRR Friends,
We wanted to give you a little update on Kali (Lucky) and Kirby (Bones). We finally understand what everyone was talking about when they said how great it would be to have two dogs. We have to admit that at the LRR picnic this past summer (only a week after having the dogs) we were a little skeptical. We never thought we would get a good night's sleep again. That is all changed now. They are settled in and seem very happy. We cannot imagine having only one of them. They have very unique personalities. Kali is a very excitable 85 pound girl. Being the runt of the litter seems to have given her more determination that her big brother cannot push her around. They still have not figured out who is the dominant one. Kirby is an extremely lovable 95 pound boy. He enjoys sleeping and sleeping and giving the two pawed "how do you do" when he is trying to be extra cute. They both get good walks and have even accompanied Ernie on several bike riding trips through the fields near our house. They enjoy getting the toilet paper cardboard roll from the center of a full roll. It just wouldn't be any fun if they didn't have to go through all that paper. They have chewed on quite a few interesting things: a $20 bill (chewed in half of course), a pack of needles, a cassette tape, any receipt ever put in the trash, Kali's ear is always a favorite for Kirby, and probably a 100 other things I just haven't missed yet. Kirby had some trouble with a heat register from the kitchen floor. I guess he smelled something good and tried to get it out. Well, his dog tags turned sideways and as he lifted his head he brought the heat vent cover with him. He was quite scared by the whole ordeal and insisted on swinging his head from side to side to get it off. This, of course, only resulted in him hitting himself in the face over and over with it. We finally had to tackle the big guy and get it off. Oh well, you live and learn. We are truly happy to have both of the dogs and appreciate all the people who contributed to their puppy hood.
