06/02/2026
We weren't originally planning to add another dog to our life after the loss of Kyro; however, Dovah has been struggling severely since the loss of his Brother. This decision came with lots of discussion and reviewing many different options that included fostering and rescuing. We kept running into hiccups from every direction. Dovah does well with all female dogs, but can be hit or miss with males (unless raised with them from a puppy up). Many dogs that were available couldn't go to homes with cats, or had unknown history with cats. As we considered our options we watched Dovah sinking further and further into a shell of himself. He wasn't excited to do the things he normally did. He wasn't interested in his food. He spent his days just hiding under the bed hardly interacting with even us.
And then.... unexpectedly the stars aligned and this little girl came to us. We are so happy to welcome Kylara (Ara) officially to our family.
Kylara's name comes from both a celebration of the memory of Kyro and also a continuation of our dragon themed dog names - it's origin is from a book series called the Dragons of Pern.
She is an upper low/lower mid content Wolfdog at ~40% and the rest mainly being Alaskan Malamute with a small bit of Siberian Husky & German Shepherd. She comes from very social grandparents and parents as well as full health testing + embark testing for multiple generations.
She is incredibly environmentally sound so far and beyond social- strangers do not exist to her. We've already met a good 100+ people over the last few days (safely out and about in a stroller or side satchel) and she has loved everyone she's met.
Kyro's passing left a hole in my heart that will exist forever, but with this new chapter I feel my heart has grown in size- adding another place into it. I feel like Kyro is watching us from wherever he may be now and is smiling down upon the future that is to come.
With his loss one last gift was granted by him to me: the gift of presence. In the time during his absence I've deeply felt and experienced day to day life differently. I plan to hold onto this gift and cherish it while committing to it as a daily practice. I plan to continue to share my photography and adventures with you all, but will be limiting my overall social media time to the sharing of photos. If there are questions you may have for me that you'd like answered - please feel free to direct message me as that will be something I check on and off.
Here's to the next chapter!
