Eight years ago today, Karl came home to be my dog. He was 7 weeks and a few days old, 14 pounds, a white strip down the middle of his forehead, one ear up and one down.

I lost my previous dog, Zack, a part-Karelian Bear Dog, to lymphoma when he was 6 years old. I was heartbroken and spent those first days looking at pictures of Karelians and of Zack and trying to ease the pain of the loss. I found a litter of Karelian pups in Choteau, MT. They were 5 weeks old. I called the owner and explained that I thought it was too soon to get another dog, but that I just wanted to see the pups. They were so nice and understood and I went – with photos of Zack and my beloved tuxedo cat Gus – to Choteau.

The owners patiently looked at my photos and listened to my Zack stories and then took me to see the pups. We sat on the ground outside the chicken coop where the pups were housed. Karelians, even the pups, are not gregarious and will take their time and decide about people. One, by one, the pups came to investigate me. The largest of the pups, a nearly totally black male crawled in my lap. I looked in his eyes and asked if he wanted to come live with me and be my dog. He fell asleep in my arms. I left a deposit and Gus and I returned in 2 weeks to get our new boy.

I had a Suburban at the time and it had a front bench seat that accomodated a large dog kennel sideways. I had soft towells and the teddy bear that Gus and I had slept with and then sent to be with Karl for the two weeks with the idea that he would know us from our scent. I don’t know if that helped, but he loved that bear! I put the towells and bear in the kennel with Karl. As we pulled away, he put his nose in the air and howled. Gus looked at me with a look that said: “What have you done?”.

I kept up a conversation, we stopped several times to walk outside and then in West Glacier, I stopped for a burger and crawled in the back of the Suburban, let Karl out and we bonded over beef.

As puppies do, he was either going full speed or dead asleep. He liked his crate or under a table or bed for sleeping – he has always been a “den” dog. It is the closet in this house.

He was the typical little brother, working hard to be a bud with his cat brother.

His other ear stood up…

His sense of humor grew…

Karl’s paper name is Kharlampii which is Russian for “Joy Shines”. Karelian Bear Dogs were bred in Finland from the Russian Laika so I looked for a Russian or Finnish name that fit that big, black pup. Kharlampii – Joy Shines, shortened to Karl, was perfect. Karl has lived up to his name. His joy shines every day.

Eight years ago today, Karl brought joy back to my house.