Riagan, Our Irish Wolfhound, at 2 Years Old

A few days ago we did our annual Mt. Spokane photo shoot with our girls--Riagan (2) and Maggie (6).  We hadn't actually planned for it to be a photo shoot, but it seems that every year we hike up there at least once and get the most amazing shots together.

Riagan's grandpa is now almost 12 years old. He's still running strong! The Ballykelly dog I grew up with, Mish, lived past 10.  I'm thrilled Riagan's line has such longevity. She's only two now, but I hope to have many more years together.  They say the average wolfhound age is 6.5?  That's just too short.  Riagan has the genetics and she's smart--thinks ahead a few steps...a quality that adds to the longevity. 

She is a beautiful wheaten wolfhound, that's for sure.  She looks wonderful in the pictures and she wasn't even groomed beforehand. Her last bath was so long ago, it would be embarassing to even say.

I love this next picture because it captures how small we are in the scheme of things.  Our time together is so short--even she lives a long wolfhound life. 

A Letter

Riagan's birthday was about ten days ago and we received our annual letter from her mama's mama to commemorate it and give us the latest updates on the litter.  Sadly, she lost her grandfather, Alfie, this year.  He was 11.5--quite old, as you know, for an Irish Wolfhound.  The reason we chose this litter over all the others was, in fact, because of the longevity and because they are from the "Ballykelly" line.

Here is a picture of Alfie and the other Laloba hounds.

I sent a letter back to Riagan's mama's mama with our latest update.  Here it is:

Dear Mama's Mama:

Thanks for the update and very sorry to hear about Judy’s loss. Things are going well here. Riagan just had her second heat at the same time as her second birthday. We kept her under lock and key, but she has been adopting all the stuffed animals in our house and taking very good care of them. She is extremely smart and LOYAL—won’t leave the bedroom, for instance, until BOTH Mike and I leave it and walks from room to room with us at all times. She won’t eat her dinner until we have thoroughly petted her, much preferring love to food. She has also learned (from puppyhood) to stand on her back legs and pound on our doors when she particularly has missed us and wants to be near. You can hear (and feel) it throughout the whole house. She hates it when we leave, so when we get home after an absence is when she’ll usually do that type of thing...or pin us up against a wall with the side of her body so we can’t get away from her until she’s had a full and thorough “hello.” All of our visitors who spend any amount of time here are amazed at the level of loyalty in an IW. As I write this, she’s laying at my feet in front of the fire. She’s just an amazing and beautiful soul.

Linda & Mike