our newest family member!

Everyone, meet Pono. He's a 1 1/2 year old male whippet. We are adopting him on September 22nd. He was rescued by a lovely family last year & they can no longer keep him. Lucky US ! We drove over to the other side of the island yesterday to meet sweet Pono & it was REALLY hard to not take him home with us right on the spot!

Pono was originally owned by a pig hunter (yes we have wild pigs here & folks hunt them all the time). Pono is afraid of gunshots (aren't we all?) so he failed miserably as a hungting dog. The hunter was going to kill him! Luckily Pono ran away & was found by a kind soul named Anne. Anne convinced the hunter to give Pono to her instead of killing him. Anne then found Pono a home with Tane & her family, where he is now. Sad, it's just like the 'perform or die' story of greyhounds and whippets from the racetrack. Sigh.

Pono's current family just inherited their father's dogs, bringing their pack up to 6 dogs! It's too much & they had to find a new home for Pono. Tane ( the current owner) was heartbroken & worried that she couldn't find a loving home for Pono. Then along came me! It's a fantastic match & Tane is very relieved that Pono's going to be loved to bits.

We only got to hang out with Pono for an hour and a half, but in that time we found out what a wonderful pup he is. He is friendly, outgoing, not spooky, not hyper, doesn't destroy his toys (aka chew things up), loves other dogs, very intelligent, responsive on leash...I can't really say enough good things about him. I'm so glad we can give him a loving (spoiled rotten) home!

'Pono' is Hawaiian for: just, fair, goodness, excellence, well being... in a nutshell "righteous living".

click on the photos for a larger view :) His 'pillow' is Pebbles, a chihuahua/jack russell mix. TOo cute, huh?