Meet my new American boy!

This is Darwin!



Darwin (it took us almost a week to come up with a name for him) is a purebred English Setter adopted by us from rescue. I had to drive to the US to get him - they're quite unusual here in the Pacific Northwest.

He's 5.5 years old and he's very sweet. He's a field English Setter which means he's a bit smaller and carries a bit less coat than the show strains. Field setters can also be more active than their show counterparts who tend to be a tad more mellow. Darwin is over his crazy adolescence and while he's very active oustide, he settles right down indoors and naps the day away.

English Setters are bird hunting dogs and Darwin is very birdy. In fact, when he goes outside, it's like a switch goes in his brain and he completely forgets there's someone holding his leash. He's all bird, bird, bird!

A hunting trainer assessed him when he was in rescue and discovered he's scared of the sight of a gun - not the sound, which is a more common problem. Since we don't hunt, it's not going to be an issue.

However, he's also scared of the camera so one of our challenges will be to get good photos of him.



Here you'll see he's noticed me pointing a camera in his direction & he decides to leave pronto.



His fur is thin, he might have allergies, and there's something not right with one of his eyes. But he's very affectionate and cheerful, he respects the cat, and he's made himself right at home. He and Daisy are still figuring each other out; there's no signs of any aggression from either of them but I think they've not quite decided yet who's top dog.

What a great dog to round out our pack! Someone's loss (he's an unclaimed stray whose owners were tracked down but refused to bail him out - this is the same story as Daisy's; after a stay at the shelter he was signed over to rescue) is our gain.