u/BabyBlue79

Went to the seaside for a few days and had to bring my boys 🥰 Cățeluș is huge but I didn't want to stay overnight without him and we went by car so it wasn't super unreasonable to bring him. The little guy is Ranger, he's obviously way more portable so Cățeluș guarded the holiday house during the day and Ranger came out in my bag with me. Most of Ranger's pics are taken in a museum all about the history of fishing and sea faring which is super interesting. I've been to this museum a few times now and just love the vibe 😍✨️

I literally couldn't be more in love with it! They did such an excellent job as always (I've had art by them before!) and I'm always kept updated and everything, I would SO recommend getting your baby painted 🫶 u/Professional_Meeper is so talented and sweet, don't hesitate to get in contact with them 🥺❤️ gonna be using my art for soooo many profile pics now 🥰🥰 Thank you again!

I added the watermarks myself just for extra protection as this was a piece I paid for so I'd like it not to be freely used 🫶

I had made a post maybe a few weeks ago (?) About wanting to get this big boy (a bit of an expense given im in the UK and he was US exclusive I believe? Definitely not easy to get here anyway) and I was aware it was an emotional purchase, but I didnt want to impulse buy something so pricey. So i budgeted and made rules not to have more plushies for awhile, as well as also selling one of my other jumbos to accommodate. Im absolutely 1000% glad I did this, he is absolutely GORGEOUS and I feel so lucky to have been able to get him new with tags. Just wanted to share some pics of our first few days together 💕 I want to waffle a little about him and his 'origin' story so read if you're interested but I feel like I've talked enough 😅 idk I like rarely post online and it probably shows 💀

THE YAP:

So, his name is Cățeluș (the Romanian word for Puppy) which is not the most original I dont think, but it was sort of an accident. Very recently I lost my first dog who was 12. I've never experienced greif in my life before and its been hitting me very hard. I'm not coping very well and really the only way I've been somewhat interacting with the whole thing is through writing. I have a dream of writing an original book and am working slowly towards that, but I've been OBSESSED with writing fanfiction since I was a young teen. I no longer share them as its usually something I just do for fun and through my relating to my favourite characters, i often work through complex emotions this way. So by chance (or at least subconsciously) I started writing about one of my current favourite characters having a dog who was a millitary dog as my fic is set in the 1940s. The character becomes attached to the dog as he finds it soothes him through the hardships he's facing and the story developed into him trying to fight for the right to own the dog as they formed an inseparable bond, rendering the dog with no desire to obey anyone but the character. It's been interesting and emotional at times as the character goes through periods of having the dog removed from him which in a way reflects my own pain at my boy being gone.

And this character has been changed quite a bit from his canon 'lore' to me, ive really done a lot of my own imagining with him based off of random nuances etc that are all just connected through little threads, so although canonically he is not Romanian born, he is to me. And the dog in the story was not originally given a name, only a number for the soldiers to use (this is probably not historically accurate, its a fic for fun and for me so is not at all period accurate) so he names him 'Pup'/'Puppy' (because of the dogs increasingly clingy behaviour with him) but of course in his native language of Romanian, so he was named Cățeluș. I hadn't meant him to be such a prominent part of my little story, so his name was not well thought out initially, but I left it because it felt natrual that way—the character had not intended to form such a bond with the dog, so simply called him affectionately, not by a 'real name'.

Because of the development of this story and my own attachment to this character, Cățeluș suddenly became just as important to me and I found myself wanting a German Shepherd plush, as this is the breed he is of course. This felt much more accessible to me as my own boy was a black Lab and I am still finding it difficult to look at photos of him or see dogs/plushies of his likeness. So a completely different dog felt more approachable. I ended up with a few of the smaller Douglas GSDs (General, to be specific) but then I stumbled into Douglas's Major the German Shepherd and I fell head over heels. The idea of such a big dog plush felt like the ultimate comfort right now and he looks pretty realistic which to my research anyway was hard to find in this breed. I thought about him for weeks before making plans to bring him home. And I'm so glad I did. He is bringing a lot of light into my life right now 💕

Sorry this is so random and long but if you read all of it, thank you. It's just nice to be heard sometimes, even if nothing comes from it. I hope you liked his little story and pictures anyway 🥰

Im super stressed about this parcel because it was expensive and the seller messed around with the shipping too much to my dislike. I specifically asked them about shipping couriers before buying and they agreed to use FedEx as it was one of the carriers they apparently had business with only for them to make the FedEx label, give me the tracking, then promptly cancel the label without explaination. I had to ask myself and then got told there was "a technical error" and they'd decided to just ship with Asendia without even asking me. So I am a bit peeved about it and nervous about their actions.

Its coming from the US to the UK and right now, Royal Mail tracking are telling me (as shown also on the screenshot) that it got to Midlands and is now at Edinburgh which is the last mail centre before parcels reach my local office. It all feels like it arrived too fast, I was expecting to wait a week or more, not a couple days. Of course if it is just somehow coming this fast im not complaining. I just feel paranoid. And why is it suddenly showing dispatched from the US after it's apparently been in the UK for 2 days?

Hoping someone is more knowledgeable so I can stop stressing so much 😭