Kai

Kaiyah aka: Kai, Booboos, Pooper, Das poopantor

She was born May 16, 2012 and came to me early into my first summer of marriage. She was tiny and only 7 weeks old when the owners let me take her home. From the moment she and I were together we were inseparable. Within her first month home she attended a 4th of july party where she was in her carrying case strapped to me, and my sister-in-law’s wedding where she was the guest of honor. I had never had my own puppy so I read a lot on how to train her and within no time at all she was well potty trained and learning all of the basic tricks.

You could say we were two pea’s in a pod.

I have never owned my own dog before and was at a loss for what to name her. I read a lot about labs and how they respond to names. They like one syllable names so I google’d black female dog names. Kai in Swahili means Loveable and in Cornish it means dog. In Burmese it means Strong or Unbreakable. I just really liked the name. And I only call her Kaiyah when she is in trouble and mostly goes by Kai.

My husband worked over seas at the time and Kai really was my life saver. She is my closest companion. She gets sad when I’m sad and so happy when her dad comes home just like me. That first summer I tried to teach her to swim a little too early. I couldn’t help it! She’s a lab and at 12 weeks I threw her in the water with me and she hated me for it. I was SO worried I had ruined my water dog. However, I’ll never forget that fall when she finally went in the water with her best friend Riley! Now we can’t keep her out of it.

She makes life so much better as my best friend, my constant companion. She gets me out of the house and off of my butt to take her to play and walk. One of her favorite things is fetch. It doesn’t matter where we are, she will find a stick, small, medium or large and bring it to you, including entire fallen trees at times!

Kai was purchased for $20 from a friend’s sister.  I had wanted to adopt a pet from the shelter, but I also wanted my first dog to be a puppy to raise and teach and train myself and Kai was it for me once I saw her.  The mom was a full yellow lab and dad was ½ black lab, ½ golden retriever. She is black with a white diamond on her neck and some white hair on the under side of her paws. Her ears are and face are golden to a T, and so is her bushy tail, but everything else is Lab. I was drawn to her because of the tests my dad had taught me about dogs. She was middle of the line when it came to dominant v. passive, and liked to play.

Like most labs, she is a friendly lover of a dog. I haven’t met anyone yet that doesn’t fall for her. She’s a lot like her momma in that way. She loves hunting with her dad for birds, bears and gophers. She has a good nose, but is still learning the art of being a bird dog without proper training. That doesn’t stop her dad from taking her though. She sits on the middle console and her nose is basically against the windshield, at full attention as he drives slowly looking for grouse.

Like Kai I love the water too and learning to kayak has become a favorite thing for us to do together. She is learning to sit in the proper places and trust her legs, but this trip, she liked sitting right by me the most. She is my shadow…and likes being with her mom a lot.

Kai makes wookie noises. She talks a lot to her dad and I when she wants something or needs something. We call it wookie language because it’s not a normal whine or bark. It sounds something like Chewbaka. A bad habit I got her into was eating pieces of toilet paper. When she was little to keep her occupied I would throw tiny pieces for her into the air while I went to the bathroom. Every morning we still do this ritual much to my husband’s dismay.

Kai and I have driven across country together twice! She flew to Chicago with me and drove back to Montana with my mom and brother at 3 months of age.  Then,  again at 6 months we went to Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, Illinois and got stuck in a snow storm in Wyoming. It was – 3º, snowing and so windy that when I tried to take her outside for a walk, she could barely take a step without blowing away. It was crazy! I think that these adventures are why she is so well socialized. On this trip alone, she met over 35 different people and hung out with 6 other dog and cats. I miss those adventures and long for another road trip with her soon!!!

Another favorite thing that Kai, Buck and I do together is snuggle. She is a crazy snuggle bunny. She rarely goes to bed with us, but by 2 am she has found her place at my feet. I thought I might be more harsh about that, but when Buck was gone all of the time, she was so comforting it ended quickly. She loves to find her way between the two of us and lick us until we wake up and rub her belly. She loves belly rubs and having her ears massaged. They are the softest ears on the planet.

The only thing I regret is not having Kai put into more training when she was younger. She is SO smart and I would have liked to see her get more advanced tricks and bird doggin’. Maybe we can still make this happen!

If you are following along, Kai now has a new friend from the local shelter: Boone!