The Adventures of Nieve

If you haven't read my post about my recent trip to Mexico, Nieve is the newest addition to my life. I found her wandering around a plaza in Santa Cruz, Mexico with her little brother or sister. They ran under a truck, and I asked my Dad if I could take one home if I caught it. Well, I crawled under the truck and caught one! The other one took off, and we couldn't find it anywhere. :( I held the little white furball for awhile, hoping that no one would come over and claim her as their puppy. She was pretty dirty, but I could still tell she was white & she was sooo cute! I wanted to name her "Snowball" in Spanish, but that required too many words ("Bola de Nieve"), so I opted for just "Nieve," which means snow. No one came to claim her, so we took her home! When we got back to the house we gave her a shower, picked the ticks out of her ears & pulled all the fleas off of her, gave her some food and water, and then let her curl up in a towel and she went to sleep.

Nieve's first bath


She wasn't a normal puppy... she didn't whine in the middle of the night, and first thing in the morning when I took her outside, she went right to the dirt to go to the bathroom! She was super shy the first day, she spent almost all day hiding under the truck in the garage. By the evening, she started to warm up and came out to play for a little. Over the next few days, she spent almost all day sleeping, and would wake up and play at night. She also spent a lot of time hunting for bugs in the evening! Apparently, that must have been what she survived on for the first few weeks of her life. I've never seen a dog eat so many bugs before, it was hilarious. And yes, we were feeding her dog food that whole time too!

Napping during the day



Evening playtime


So the next step was to figure out how we were going to get her home. Well, to make a long story short, we researched all the U.S. Customs and airline requirements, and spent the next few days tracking down vets for vaccinations and a health certificate, and finding a pet carrier for the airplane. Have you ever tried to buy a pet carrier in Mexico?? Good luck! If you ask for a "bolsa para un perro" (bag for a dog), they'll look at you like you're crazy! More properly translated, pet carrier is actually "transportadora para un perro," but we couldn't even find a pet store ("mascotas"), and most of the big department stores didn't have anything. We finally found a carrier that was the right size in the Walmart in Tepic... thank goodness for Walmart! But even they only had 2 sizes - one was way too big, and the other was barely big enough for her, but it had to work. Getting through Customs turned out to be WAY easier than we thought it would be, and Nieve officially became an American dog!

Rest stop after looking for the first vet


First trip to the beach


First surfing trip


Trip to El Cora Waterfall - I carried her down all the stairs to get there, but then Nieve climbed back up the 200+ stairs by herself when we left!



She's been to the vet here already, and has been given a clean bill of health. She's had a few more shots, and unfortunately she has to get her rabies shot again, since she was too young when she got it in Mexico. The vet here says she's probably only 3 months old right now, which means she was only 2 months old when I found her and she got her 1st rabies shot. The vet definitely thinks she is some kind of mix with a mountain dog, like a Malamute, Husky, or Great Pyrenees. Which means she's going to be BIG & HAIRY!! I found a picture of a Great Pyrenees puppy online, that looks just like her, so I'm thinking that's what kind of mountain dog she has in her. But, she doesn't have dewclaws on her back feet, which Great Pyrs have, but since she's probably mixed with something else, that could explain why. Either way, she's awfully cute, spunky, and already very loyal. She loves to play with the cats, my other dog Spike, and runs around like a horse! She loves to go outside, and was smart enough to figure out the doggy door on the first day I brought her home. Unfortunately, she's a digger, so we're working on that... She is house-trained already though. It only took her one time getting caught in the act, and she never did it again!

Picture of a great pyrenees puppy


The other day I took Nieve & Spike to the snow. Spike's been in the snow before, and he sort of likes it, but he gets cold pretty fast and it was pretty deep in spots, so I ended up carrying him most of the time. Nieve on the other hand, absolutely LOVED it. She immediately started jumping around, tossing the snow around, eating it, and running around like a silly little kid. It was hilarious. We'll definitely have to make a couple more trips to the snow this winter. I'm glad she liked the snow so much, otherwise her name would be kind of silly!!










So I've been tracking her growth rate, since I've never had a big dog before, and it's insane! I've been weighing her every week, and I measure her height to the top of her back while she's standing. Measuring to her head is too hard, cuz she won't stand still! But, here's what I've tracked so far:

Dec 27 - 8 pounds, and about 10 inches tall (I didn't measure her height at that time)
Jan 8 - 10 pounds, 12 inches tall
Jan 20 - 12 pounds, 13.5 inches tall
Jan 27 - 14 pounds, 14.5 inches tall

Stay tuned for further updates in my little snow angel's life! <3