Nelly and Fientje

Nelly (Izalia ACE) and ACE Fientje are our dogs. Our two extra kids we say, because they have become a part of our family. Nelly came to us as a 5 month old puppy, very specifically this is how it happened.

One morning I was with my girlfriend and she showed me a dog who her girlfriend was going to adopt from ACE. I read the first stories on the site and was hooked. The children agreed with me at once but my husband was not convinced. Until we saw Nelly, a cross podenco ....

My husband was won over by the qualities of the Podenco. By midnight I had persuaded him and  at two o'clock in the morning I sent a mail saying that we wanted to adopt Nelly.

After the home visit and necessary arrangements Nelly could finally come to us. At Rotterdam Airport she jumped right in our arms from the bench. I was almost crying, I was so happy.

Of course she was not house trained straight away, but after three weeks she did nothing more in the house.

Nelly is a very sweet dog, but we found her rather quiet for a young dog. As if she was missing someone. I kept looking at the ACE website. With a little bit of nagging my husband finally said that I could choose another dog. YESSSS !!!

In October 2015 Fientje came to us.

Fientje is probably a cross between an English Staffordshire terrier and a Podenco. We went to pick her up from Schiphol airport. The entire bench and Fientje herself were covered in shit. She was so stressed out ... My husband took her out of the bench and cleaned her up completely and next thing she was lying in my lap. She was home ...

At home, both Fientje and Nelly thought it was not right that there were two dogs with one owner, so that took a bit of sorting out. However, after a few days they were in the basket together.

Fientje was 15 months old when she came to us and she was terrified of men. Every man she saw made her regress and reminded her of her past. Fortunately, she has turned a corner and people who see her again now see that she has changed 180 degrees. She now goes to men and licks their hands.

Now Nelly is already one and a half years with us and Fientje one year. They can not live without each other. They sleep together in the bench and in the basket. Our garden has become a race track. They run after each other and hide behind the bushes. In the forest they play briefly with other dogs, but soon sprint back to each other again. Other people find them a lovely couple; has, they will forage  together, and if one finds something they will share. They wait for each other and seek each other's support.

I walk with both dogs of course. Nelly has become very social and Fientje too.  I'm still working on agility with both dogs. They enjoy this very much but still find each other more interesting and will walk quickly towards each other during the course. 

Very occasionally it goes wrong. They suddenly have a terrible quarrel, hate jumping out of the eyes and so it is difficult to get them apart. Afterwards they size up to each other for a couple of days, but after that everything is hunky-dory again.

They are like kids about food. If  I am cooking then they are in the kitchen. If they hear an egg being tapped, they are both standing with their paws on the counter, waiting until they can lick the beaters. they are such delicious sweet dogs. 

They also run after you all day. Where I go, go my dogs go to, if I'm walking the dogs come too, if I go to the bathroom, the dogs are there too. If I'm at work and the door is open (I work at home), I hear the dogs just sniff deeply under the door to smell if I'm there. Then they go back to their basket again.

This summer 2016 Nelly and Fientje went camping with us. And stayed in the tent too. Their behaviou was exemplary. They went everywhere with us. We chose to camp in the woods so they could play and run. Just to see how they played with each other, made me happy already. Every morning we went for a long walk, very early, so that they were quiet for the rest of the day.

Our days were delicious. Every day we walked a long way and the leaves crackled under the dogs paws. Fientje loved it!

Nelly challenges Fientje in the garden, to make him run after her. Hilarious to see. Nelly is always slightly faster than Fientje but Fientje is working hard to catch up with her. If they run after each other it's like a train arriving. The ground almost rumbles. And clumsy Fientje, which she can be sometimes, tumbles over as she chases Nelly. Ha ha !!!

So now Nelly and Fientje are mates for life, for each other, for me and for our family.

ACE - we are grateful that we could adopt these two dear ones.

Greetings Marjola