The adventures of "The Pack" living in the Alpujarras, the foothills of Spain's Sierra Nevada mountains, Andalucia
07 November 2017
Reading time: 4 mins
If we are not careful Khumbu will have turned 11 and Arko will have been with us a year and half before we Hu’mum gets around to introducing him. So please welcome Arko, the newest member of the pack.
He was living in the city of Granada with his humans with spectacular views of the Alhambra Palace since he was a puppy, but his humans life had taken a change of direction and they were not able to give him the time a husky needs. So it was with a very heavy heart they started to look for another home for him and they found us.
The hu’parents went to meet Arko at his home and being a typical husky, no loyalty BOL, he bonded straight away with the hu’parents. It was decided he would come live with us on a trail to make sure we would all get along.
We were not looking to add to the pack but hey once you meet a husky …… there is no escape.
He was 10 months old when all this took place back in September 2016. Arko turns 2 in a few days, so you can see he has been with us a while now. It was a bit confusing at first for Arko but he soon settled into daily life here with us. Kyra pretty much ignored him and still does, Rita thought it was great to have a young brother to play with and Khumbu thought it was a great idea too.
It has not been all plain sailing, Arko had some ‘resource guarding’ issues, which if hu’mum was not quick enough to notice the signs, would end in a fight between Khumbu and Arko. It could be the water bowl, toys, food etc. It was a learning curve for all of us as we had never encountered this before. Over the past year Arko has learned he does not need to guard anything and can share with us all quite happily now, but hu’mum is always with us when we eat.
Apart from the issue with resource guarding, Arko has fitted nicely in to the pack. He has accepted that Khumbu is “el jefe”, there will come a time when Khumbu hands over the job, but for now he still wants it. Rita and Arko are like a couple of naughty kids when they are together, they egg eachother on and wind eachother up.
Arko was, until recently, an off lead dog. Yes he was one of those rare huskies who didn’t run off, he hadn’t heard of the Siberian Husky Rules. Apparently Khumbu (and social friends) have updated him on his duties as a Siberian Husky and he has had his off lead freedom revoked, as has Rita. Now it is the two oldies who get the off lead time. He and Khumbu are both very talkative huskies, breakfast and dinner time are quite a noisy affair until the food is served.
He is a complete goofball and I think we can agree we enjoy having this blue eyed boy as a member of the pack.
You can view some pictures of Arko from before he came to live with us on hu’mums SmugMug
The OP Pack: So nice to meet you, Arko. You are a very handsome boy and very lucky to have landed in the wonderful family you now have. Mom agrees about being hard to resist. As you can tell from our latest addition, she doesn’t even have to MEET the husky, seeing a photo is enough to convince her:) Timber has a tiny bit of guarding behavior, but only when it comes to three particular toys. They were old toys belong to Misty and Lightning, but for some reason once he got here, he decided they were his and his alone. He only gets to play with them when the other two are outside. Maybe one day he will let the others share them like he does very willingly with all the other toys and bones here. We wish we knew what was so special about those three toys:) Woos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber
The Ao4: Good help is hard to find, Arko! Glad your hu-mom finally got with the program! Your photos are stunning! Yours sincerely Margaret Thatcher,
KB: Welcome, Arko! You’re a handsome dude, and you’re very lucky to be with your new pack! I’m so glad that you finally were unveiled to us :)