Today was Basil’s first full day at our home. He’s still a bit shy and scared. It’s very poignant to think of things from Basil’s point of view. Just a day ago, he was with his parents and siblings and now he is in a new and strange environment and he simply doesn’t know what is going on or who we are. I know over time, his memories of previous family will fade, and he will be so so happy with us, but I reflected a bit on what he must be going through.
Also, a few notes about the name. We settled on Basil like the plant. I wasn’t wild about the fact that it’s my great gradfather’s name, but maybe I should be. It is really cool to bring family names to life. I guess I’ve never thought of dogs carrying family names like human posterity, but the kids fell in love with the name when someone suggested it. At first it was pronounced “Baa-sil” (like the Waa noise of a a baby), but everyone struggled with that, confusing it with “Bah-sil” (like baa baa black sheep). My favorite anecdote about his name is when we did a video call with my dad and Susan today to introduce Basil to them, and I explained that we settled on the pronunciation of Basil like the plat because no-one could get the other pronunciation right and Lydia corrected me saying actually it was only because I couldn’t get the pronunciation right, hahaha!
Still, overall, he did very well today. I had a massive amount of work, so I was not super present, but I know Lily was very active with the training and potty training, and the kids were obsessed with him. Here are some fun photos preceded by a video of Lydia dancing with him.
