Nomade’s mother, Gitane, is a 24 kg Border Collie and black Labrador mix. She is a kind dog who loves to run around, play fetch and destroy inflatable balls. Here she is, lounging:
Nomade’s father is a bit of a mystery. He is a Turkish Shepherd who lives in Eastern Turkey. He watches a flock of sheep. He is very tall, thick furred and mostly white, with some black spots. He is timid, well, I assume since it took him a few days to lure Gitane. From the description our friends gave us, he is likely an Akbash and probably looks like this:
Here’s how we got our dog:
Jonathan and I stayed at Nehru Park in New Delhi for weeks, trying to get our Iranian visa. The park turned out to be a squatting point for many people travelling in camper vans, most of whom were also waiting on their Iranian visa. We ended up spending our evenings with many lovely people.
We met a French couple, Laurent and Amandine, that was dropping by to give another French couple a puppy. Laurent and Amandine’s dog Gitane, had gotten pregnant in Goa and had given birth in Nepal. All of the puppies had been given away except for this last male, who was reserved for these friends. The puppy was a gorgeous little guy with very particular colouring. They named him Cawa, a slang for coffee in France.
Jonathan and I met up with Laurent and Amandine in Islamabad, still trying to get our Iranian visa, and decided to travel together. We got along wonderfully with them and their dear Gitane.
We crossed Pakistan and part of Iran with our friends and said our goodbyes near Persepolis. Jonathan and I wanted to stay in the South of Iran a little longer, while they wanted to head North. We were sure we would see them again in France.
Once in Turkey, at the Cappadocce, Jonathan and I received an email from Amandine. Their camper van had broken down and the insurance company was flying them home. There was a major problem though, there was no way to put Gitane on the plane. Jonathan and I were happy to take a detour and pick up their happy dog.
So we met up with Laurent and Amandine who gave us instructions on how to take care of Gitane. After all, neither Jonathan nor I had ever had a dog! There was one more little thing, Gitane was pregnant.
Gitane had become in heat much earlier than suspected. She had had her Indian litter in March, and shouldn’t have been in heat for another 6 months. Well, nature isn’t always on our calendar and brought things early. While we were still with Laurent and Amandine we watched Gitane, who was in heat, to make sure she didn’t get busy with a male. Well, one night in Turkey, right before bedtime, a shy male who had been visiting their campervan for a few days, successfully wooed Gitane.
Laurent said that if we wanted a puppy, we could have one.
So we took Gitane back to Luxembourg without a hitch. She was a darling to travel with, and a wonderful bodyguard. She showed us that morning sickness occurs not only in humans, but we didn’t mind cleaning up after her. We had a great time with her. Our friends came to pick her up, and reminded us that the puppies were coming in late August. I said we still had to think about it (we still had no idea what we were doing) but that if we took one, we wanted a dark coloured female, like Gitane.
On September 1st, 2 days before we returned to Europe from Canada, we got an email that the puppies were born. There was a dark female with white paws, a white nose and white on the tip of her tail and she was ours. We still hadn’t confirmed what we were doing, but I told Jonny that she was ours, and our responsibility. We told Laurent and Amandine that we were naming her, Nomade.
In October, Jonathan and I took the Wombat to St-Mathurin-sur-Loire in France to see our puppy. She was only six week old and too young to take with us, but we were so happy to make her acquaintance! It was love!
We visited Bretagne and went back to pick up Nomade. Our friends who had adopted Gitane’s Indian puppy came to visit. He was 7 months old and looked just like an Indian dog: long and lanky! It was a very special family reunion.
We were lucky to adopt our puppy from friends. She lived with her mommy in a house for the first 2 months of her life, and learned so much from copying Gitane. When we got her, she already knew her name and to “sit”. She never once had an accident in the Wombat, and was so easy to train. She loves learning and knows many tricks. Here is a video of her at 3 months:
She is friendly, happy, trustworthy and so much fun! She still jumps on strangers when she meets them (she loves making new friends), but we’re working on that. She knows Jonathan’s name and mine and loves to play hide and seek .She has never gotten bored while playing (she has lots of energy) but knows when she needs to calm down for bed-time. The vet has estimated that she will be 30 kg (6 kg more than her mom) and at 6 months she already weighed 21 kg. She is growing up to be quite a looker, and is a lot of fun. I don’t remember what life was like without a dog. She wakes us me up every morning at 7 with a little kiss on the nose, which is one of my favourite things.
She may not be a pedigree pure-breed show dog, but she’s our one-of-a-kind little angel. She is the best souvenir I could have ever imagined taking home from such a memorable trip.
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