Sora (formerly Sugarplum) has been quite a bit of work and in truth I constantly fought with my own doubts if she was the right dog and such. Especially her unknown reactivity to dogs and her separation anxiety. I was spoiled by my previous dog, Mizu who did not come with these issues and mostly was just very aloof and always did his own thing but always wanted to be at least in the same room.
I’ve come to realize it’s almost impossible to find the perfect dog because these rescues are often fully grown and come with some bad habits with unknown history. Along with my still grieving process, I could only focus on Sora’s negative aspects because they were the ones that gave me anxiety, so I fixated on her problems; and because I am still grieving I couldn’t help but compare her to my previous dog despite how wrong it is. As I got more comfortable with her, got to know her triggers and us being more used to each other’s quirks and strides, it’s gotten better. What has helped most was when I introduced her to more family and friends who all adore her greatly. Seeing her play well with some dogs on a 1-on-1 basis also helped. These little things helped remind me of her positives and gave me a form of confirmation that she is indeed a good dog. I think all new relationships take work and we still have a long way to go but I am grateful to have her be so affectionate with myself and every person she’s met.
These days, we mostly walk around my area and go to the dog park at night when no one else is around for her to have some zoomies and all in. We recently went snowshoeing for the first time over the new years and we also went off road camping together.
Sora’s adoption is dedicated to the memory of Mizu, who showed his adopter how amazing Northern Breeds can be.