Hercules the dog

This is our latest edition to our home a 1 year old puppy half Rot Wilder, half German Shepherd named Hercules. One thing I have to admit- I am not a dog person and I am not an animal person. I think this all stems from throughout my childhood we never had any pets (except this goldfish that lasted a short while until he fell behind the dresser when us 5 siblings were playing with him) because my mother also is not a dog or animal person. I have always just plainly concluded I love playing with kids and that is more than enough. Well Jason has wanted a dog basically since we moved out here and it has just not been in our budget to purchase one. Fine by me. Then there were some NGO (Non-Goverment Organization) workers here that were having to move to Nairobi and they were not able to bring Hercules to the appartments they were moving into. They asked if we would be interested in taking Hercules. They were not interested in making any money for him just wanting him to have a good home. Free I cannot really argue with. There was another circumstance that helped influence my approval. Our neighbors had someone jump over their wall (every home in Kenya has high walls with barbed wire or broken glass up on the top of it) during the day and steal all their clothes that were out on the line. Jas and I have never felt threatened since we have moved here. We have asked ourselves could it possibly be there is really no problems going on around us or are we simply oblvious and Father God is just protecting us. I am believing it is the latter and know God is the reason why we are here in the first place. All this to say I don't ever want to be ignorant to danger and since we do not have a night guard as most homes do, Hercules has been a blessing coming to our home.














How has Hercules been with the kids- one might ask. I was a nervous wreck from the begining and Righteous was taking a little bit after me at first. For the first few days we just let him adjust to the new place and get to know our girls from a distance. Nevaeh loved him from the moment she saw him. She actually can say doggie and she says that often which can break my heart bc only rarely do I hear her say momma. We are having to both train the dog how to interact with kids- like not to snip at their hands and faces even though it is for play. Then we are also having to train our kids how to interact with the dog- they can't be all hyper around in and Righteous cannot run around in circles around our trees when h is out bc he will jump on her. Hercules thinks he is a small animal which he is not and therefore doesn't know that it is ok to jump on older people only not 1 and 2 year olds. We have gotten to the place where Hercules does fine with the kids out in the yard with Jason's supervision. First he walks up to both and gives a sniff, especially to the diaper- I am sure there is always a different kind of odor coming from that. (Awesome that the diaper smelling is only from Nevaeh not Righteous hooray!) After that he is not really that interested in them any more and tries to go about his business. Nevaeh likes to follow him whereever he goes and wants to touch him. SHe always seems to put her hand in his mouth which makes me so nervous but he has done fine. When Jason isn't around I put Hercules in the garage. We have made him a huge pen but so far he has broken out of it 4 times but digging, jumping over it, and unlachting the door. Today Jas made the final touch with a big lock so hopefully the escape artist will be at rest. I am told in one month we will be having Hercules's twin brother come to live with us bc another NGO is also having to move to apartmentx in Nairobi. His name is Aquiles. More to report on that at a later date.