After countless months of looking on dog adoption websites, it was by chance that I happened to find what I thought to be the “perfect” fit for our new family – a Jindo-mix from Free Korean Dogs.
Researching what owning a Jindo entails revealed that they were fiercely loyal, smart, but also stubborn. After careful consideration, my husband and I finally took the plunge and submitted an adoption application. We originally had our hearts set on a different pup, but fate decided (with the help of the amazing FKD adoption team) that Fanta would be the one to bring laughter into our lives. Within a month we were on our way to becoming Fanta’s new guardians.
After a two hour delay at the airport and a somewhat smooth car ride, Fanta was finally home. Keeping our expectations low, we expected her to stay in her crate for a while but to our surprise she poked her head out to give us the first of many kisses almost immediately. Day by day we saw Fanta’s sweet, adoring personality shine a bit brighter. It took two weeks to wrestle the harness onto her, three weeks to show her how to use her bed, and four weeks to convince her to venture outside onto the porch for five minutes.
It has been a year now since Fanta turned our lives upside down. We have found that Fanta lives up to the Jindo traits. For example, Fanta is smart; she knows the difference between putting on her gear to go into the car and hike a trail, or putting on her gear to take her for a walk outside in the neighbourhood. She is also stubborn because when it’s the latter, she hits the brakes and makes it a battle to get out the door. Despite these quirks, we have also come to learn that Fanta is loyal. Despite a friend or family member showering her with all the treats and love in the world, she would still choose to run up to us to cuddle with at the end of the day.
When people visit our home, they would be lucky if Fanta even looks their way, but when we come home we are greeted by the biggest bum wags and endless kisses to show how much we were missed – even if we were only gone for an hour. It has definitely not been an easy journey with adopting Fanta, but if we had the choice to rewind a year and start the adoption process all over again we would only change one thing. We would choose Fanta in a heartbeat.
Written by Carmen Sham
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