My name is Nicole and I wanted to start a blog to share our special journey with a dog named Etta. In order to do that, I need to first share a little bit about myself.
I am 26 years old. I have a three year old son named Caleb (who is Etta's special boy) and live on a 9 acre farm in southern Kentucky. We live only 15 miles from one of the nations largest military bases, Ft Campbell. My boyfriend, Rob, is in the Army and is currently deployed to Afghanistan. I am recently divorced from a Soldier, my son's dad, McLean. I was a military wife for 2 years, around the Army for 4 total (if you count the time my ex husband and I spent dating/engaged) and have seen the good, bad and ugly side of Military life. Over the past four years, our family, in it's varying forms, has experienced first hand the effects of war, from losing friends to learning how to cope with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and TBI (traumatic brain injury). I owned my own business training horses for a while before I gave up doing that to dedicate my time to my son and to take a break from a business that had become all too stressful. I now focus my time on training dogs, for myself and others, and being a mom to Caleb.
We have four dogs of our own (all German Shepherds). They are Missy (a black GSD from working police lines), Draco (a wonderful male GSD from our friend and an awesome breeder, Emily), Gretchen (a rescue dog from Czech and German working lines) and Mina (an almost rescue puppy from German working and American show lines). We also currently have some rescue dogs living with us as well. There's 'Doobie' (named after Scooby Do), a 7 year old harlequin Great Dane and Bo a 10 week old rescued pit bull pup. These dogs make up Etta's canine family and our 'pack'.
Now, on to Etta....
A few months ago I was helping to do some fundraising for a dog that some Soldiers from the 101st wanted to bring home from Afghanistan. By doing that, I was introduced to an amazing group called Puppy Rescue Mission (PRM) and their sister organization Sasha's Legacy. I started browsing through the pages for both when I noticed a dog named Wiggles and her two puppies. Both pups were going to be easy to find a home for but poor Wiggles had been waiting a while for a 'furever' home with no success. Her story, and the look in her eyes, touched me and I decided to inquire about adopting her. Wiggles however was no ordinary dog, Wiggles (like Etta) is an Afghan Kuchi hound and was living in Afghanistan.
I met an amazing woman at PRM, Rosine, who told me that Wiggles would have to wait quite a while before she could come to the US because of her two puppies but that there was another dog waiting for a home who was ready to leave as soon as possible. I asked for more information and that is how I 'met' Etta. The minute I saw Etta's photo I was interested in learning more about her and I guess you could say, I fell in love.
That brings us to last month (July) when Etta began her journey to the US. Picking her up from the airport was an emotional experience after the long wait to get her here. Thanks to our great friend, Denise Smith, we were able to get this awesome photo of our first meeting.
Since Etta has arrived life has been an adventure. From spending so much time in the wild on her own and at the shelter facility Etta acted almost like someone with PTSD returning home from war. Her behavior and the look on her face was VERY reminiscent of that. Of course, we had to take everything slow, loud noises scared her and it was obvious that at some point in her life she'd probably been treated very unkindly before her hero rescued her.
Seeing all of this with Etta gave us the idea to start a program to help not only homeless and unwanted or abandoned dogs in the US but to try to integrate some of the dogs rescued over seas into the program as well, in the hopes that Soldiers will be able to identify with their frame of mind upon arrival and by helping them, in turn help themselves. Of course, this is all still in it's infancy/planning/fundraising stage and we're loving the ideas that are pouring in.
In this blog, you'll be able to read about our adventures with Etta as she adjusts to life here in her new home, the arrival of her best puppy friend Wiggles (who should be here soon) and the dogs we have/will rescue that will become a part of our program to help or be adopted out to Soldiers with PTSD and TBI.
We look forward to hearing from all of you with input, sharing stories about Etta, Wiggles and other members of the pack (human and canine) and information on PTSD and TBI for those who may not be familiar with what either are.
Until next time!
*Niki & Etta
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