No-one would dispute the fact that the past 8 months or so have been unprecendented and pretty difficult for all of us. We have had the added complication of losing our elderly dog in May last year as I wrote in this post.

We were sure that we wanted another dog but that was the extent of what we knew. There has been much discussion and searching for the perfect pet over several months.

All of the planning came to fruition on Saturday when we collected our new Tenterfield terrier pup. It was a big day out with a round trip of over 400km.

A stop in Brisbane and then a BBQ lunch at Wyaralong Dam broke up the outbound trip.

It has been a bit of shock to the system as it is over 25 years since we last had a pup. The combination of being 8 weeks old and of a small breed means that she was not much bigger than a guinea pig when we picked her up.

The next trick was to decide on a name. I wanted something that was relatively unique but easy to use when calling her. So, the final decision was ‘Islay’ – pronounced eye-la. The origin is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides in Scotland which we visited last year and home to several whisky distilleries. It is a nod to her whisky-coloured face as well as our travels.

Despite her small size, Islay seems to be settling in well and I think she has grown even in the past 2 days.