So first and foremost I’d like to introduce a new member of our family.  She’s fluffy, she’s white and she really likes sausages.

Less than 48 hours after we moved in to our newly built house, we thought that it would be a really good idea to get a puppy.  It’s something we’d been talking about over the last year and had already made the decision to buy a LGD (Large Guardian Dog) for the farm.  To that end I’d contacted a couple of breeders in our area and discovered that a puppy ‘with papers’ was going to be waaaaaaaay out of our budget.  Like ‘sell the children’ out.  Seeing as we’ve grown fond of the children and, you know, eating over the years, we thought better of it.

Then, just before we moved, Stephen saw an ad on Kijiji for some Great Pyrenees puppies.  Basically it consisted of a picture of many floofy white puppies, a phone number and a price that didn’t equate the cost of a second hand car.  So on a bright and sunny Sunday, we abandoned the unpacking and headed half an hour south to Morrisburg (that’s rural baby) to meet the owner and her family of dogs.

About 9 seconds after getting out of the car we knew that a puppy was coming home with us.  We spent time with them all and, eventually, Winnie started to stand out just that little bit more.  Something told us (well Stephen really as official dog chooser) that she was meant to be ours.  So home she came.  A tiny bundle of fluff, just 11 weeks old and small enough to fit on my lap.

Our goal is that she be a ‘farm dog’, her work will be to protect the livestock from coyotes and other wild critters, of which there are many round these parts.  Great Pyrenees are bred for this very purpose and have a double coat which makes them comfortable outside in all temperatures.  To that end we started her off by the patio doors in the basement but then she started sleeping in her ‘spot’ in the garage.  That’s the way it will be, we thought, she’s a hardy outside dog and she’ll want to be out there, in the cool and quiet.

Then the weather report said -10C overnight and Stephen looked down at this face,

Since then she has spent the evenings stretched out by the sofa with free access to belly rubs and fire heat.  Stephen even gets up at 4am to let her out for a wee, he puts a couple more logs on the fire and then comes back to bed; that’s dedication people.  That white bundle (named after my Grandma with the suffix of ‘the White’ added by Huwyl) really has a certain beardy chap wrapped around her paw.

That said, I’m pretty prone to that face too,

That’s the ‘I know you have treats in your pocket’ face, who can resist?  Not us, not any of us.  The boys adore her, even grumpy old Bella is finding her inner puppy.

This floofy white bundle is now firmly entrenched as one of us, I can’t imagine life on the farm without her.  We are working on her training, ever aware that as a full grown dog she’ll weigh in somewhere around 120-130lbs, that’s a lot of dog to say no to.  Every day we marvel at how big she is, how clever she is, how floofy she is.  I’m looking forward to enjoying her protection over the coming years, the security of knowing that any approaching coyote is in for a nasty surprise, but for now I adore this gorgeous puppy of ours.

Who wouldn’t?