From the streets to the snow

This is my dog, Simba. I rescued her off the streets of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in November 2013. She was just a few weeks old, all on her own, and close to death.

As she grew up, and I continued to live there, it was a challenge to give her the sort of adventurous life I wanted for her - the reasons were many: getting out of the city, with its miles and miles of traffic-jams, was often impossible, walking her at the beach was extremely difficult as locals are so terrified of dogs, and walking her in my neighbourhood was not an option because knowledge of a cared-for dog would quickly turn into an opportunity for theft and ransom.

I did the best I could - although we were mostly confined to our high-walled garden, I played with her every day, throwing balls and even cycling laps of my garden with her, so she'd be accustomed to the sight of me on a bike. I was thinking long-term...

After two years, where she'd hardly left our high-walled property, we finally moved to the French Alps. It initially absolutely blew her mind when we went outside for a walk: there were no walls or fences! She'd run and run, taking off into the woods for minutes at a time, but always returning to me. Being from a tropical climate, and with our arriving in the Alps just as winter had begun, we realised very quickly that she needed a few coats and layers in order to cope with this sudden change. Other than that, she's absolutely thrived!

She saw her first snow (and loved it), and accompanies us skiing, hiking and mountainbiking.

She's finally got the life I'd planned for her.
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