Hi friends, Summer is here! This Spring was quite cold here in Italy: now that the sun is finally out, it’s time to either brush our pets or clean our couches and rugs! The choice is ours but one thing is for sure: there is no escape from brushing hair out of stuff!
Speaking of escaping… I went on my first Summer trip last week! The team stayed at home with their favorite pet sitter, “la Nonna”, while we hopped on a plane that brought us to the Sicily region. We spent five days in Catania, a beautiful city that lies between the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the shadow of Mount Etna.
Are there any enthusiastic Pokémon photographers reading my newsletter? You would have enjoyed this trip: so many different landscapes packed in one single place! The only wild Pokémon we spotted in the city were stray cats and dogs, and we have plenty of those on our team already, so we didn’t catch any 😅. Did you know, though, that one particular member of our team was actually born in Catania 🥰?! It has been nice to learn more about Vixen’s origins!
You see, Vixen was found when she was a small puppy, not even two months old. She was roaming the streets of Catania, all alone, dirty as a Trubbish, and sadly she was also very, very scrawny 😥. She entered someone’s yard and cried until a girl found her and helped her! It was Valentine’s Day, so they decided to call her Valentina.
The next day the girl called the local shelter. The volunteers made a post on social media with a picture of puppy Vixen, with her big, sad eyes. Needless to say, we couldn’t resist answering that call for help. We were looking for a dog those days, and the Internet was brimming with thousands of dogs looking for a Trainer. Volunteers are amazing since they do their absolute best - and then some - to spay, rescue, and find a home for the puppies, but in the south of Italy, where it is warmer and there are more rural places, stray dogs rule the towns.
In the end, I was interviewed and approved to adopt little Valentina! She was vaccinated, bathed, and brought to us by airplane, because she was so tiny she could fly inside the cabin with a volunteer 🥰. We picked her up at the airport in Rome and I still remember that touching her fluffy fur felt like caressing the softest Cottonee 🌈.
We named her Vixen Valentine, to honor her origins, but also because we like Final Fantasy VII’s character Vincent Valentine haha! The second choice on our (super long) list of name ideas was Cupid (but pronounced Kewpie). We are happy that we named her Vixen, though, I think it fits her personality well. She’s a badass.
Friends, in this story I wanted to tell you about the things I’ve seen on top of Mt. Etna (an active volcano!!), but as expected I started talking about my dog and digressed… 🙄Sorry, not sorry 😘
Hey! If you would like, tell me your adoption stories in the comments! Many of you have ordered Pokémon cards from me, so I’ve seen your cats and dogs! It would be so great to learn more about their background if they have a particular story.
Thank you, folks! I’ll go back to brush the couch now. See you next time!
That was fun. What s good adoption story ^^ sorry not sorry haha. Well played
Is it weird I wish I could read these stories to my dogs? 🤣