Written by Nika de Wet
Professional photography by Boland Weddings
The day I adopted Nova wasn’t quite planned. It all started when my friends and I needed a study break. Usually, we volunteer at Animal Welfare Stellenbosch, playing with pups, walking dogs, etc., and we go home with a happy heart.
But this day there was a pup sitting on her own in a little cage. I spent most of my time with her and I think I just knew that this pup was going home with me. After a while, we decided that it was time to head home. As soon as we arrived, I spoke to my friends and told them my dilemma of me wanting this pup. We went back and forth for a few hours. Then I found myself back at AWSS ready to sign the papers.
Nova came back home with me, and from that day we haven’t been apart. I knew that when adopting her a few things had to change in my life. I needed to take care of a tiny pup and that I’d be responsible for teaching her everything there is to be a well-mannered yet joyful pup. I spent hours researching in order to train her myself and be a good dog mom.
In taking her for walks, I rediscovered the love I have for being out in nature enjoying the peace and quiet. Seeing her discovering so many new things, sniffing out random stuff and just her being in the moment opened my eyes. She absolutely changed my life. Our favourite activity is going on hikes and exploring nature together. I found a new hobby as well in capturing our memories in photos and posting on her Instagram. Nova absolutely loves posing for photos and, if I say so myself, she’s quite a fetching dog.
Nova joins me in most of my daily tasks. If she’s allowed in a building, she’ll most likely be right next to me. She adores people and is such a friendly doggo that we always get stopped along the way getting the “what breed is this” question a lot, followed by “this is a beautiful dog”. This spiked an interest in me wanting to have an answer. I searched the web and came across the MuttMix website.
The unforeseen happened and Nova tore her cruciate; this was a hard time because Nova is very active, loves playing fetch and is OBSESSED with balls, so to keep her still was a nightmare.
Not long after her recovery Nova started experiencing problems with her back legs again. I thought that maybe it was time to know her breed and that it might help us find the cause of this problem, that it was perhaps a genetic thing. It seems that the results we received from MuttMix confirmed that this might well be the case.
Nova’s MuttMix results:
Level 2 Beagle
Level 4 Poodle
Level 4 Papillion
I was surprised by her results; I think getting so many guesses from the public never made me think of these breeds. Nova is a very clever dog and will learn a new command within a few minutes of training – I guess the Poodle played a part in this and I’m grateful for this trait of hers.
I love Nova with all my heart; I couldn’t have asked for a better companion.
