Stokk-Sels-Kolur II

Our Kolur is a wonderful dog, gentle and sweet, polite, determined, very diligent, and exceptionally smart. We got Kolur on November 27th, three weeks after we suddenly lost Tumi. It can truly be said that this delightful puppy saved Christmas because the whole family was still mourning the sudden loss of Tumi.

When we got Kolur, I called the grandchildren in Sweden on Skype to show them the puppy. They were no less sorrowful over Tumi than the rest of the family. When they answered on Skype (their mother knew why I was calling and told them to answer), they said, "Oh grandma, who owns this puppy?" I said, "We do." Then they asked what his name was, and I told them I didn't know, they had to find a name for him. They said they would call back in a little while. It wasn't more than five minutes later when they called back on Skype and said, "His name should be Kolur." I thought that was an absolutely fantastic name. So, Kolur is registered as Stokk-Sels-Kolur II with the Icelandic Kennel Club (HRFÍ), because when I told the breeder the chosen name, she said he had an older brother named Kolur, so he would be Kolur II. That was no issue for us, but to us, he is just Kolur.

Kolur quickly showed how incredibly diligent and determined he is. When he was about 11 weeks old, he was outside in the garden exploring the world as usual but came running in, and I saw he had something in his mouth. Before I could grab it, he swallowed what appeared to be a stone.

This happened around dinner time on a Sunday. I immediately called our veterinarian, Elfa Ágústsdóttir, who is an absolute genius, and fortunately, she and another vet named Tryggvi were at the Animal Hospital. She told me to bring Kolur straight in, which I did. She decided to take an X-ray to see if it was safe to give him antiemetics. It turned out not to be possible because there were two other stones in his stomach, both smaller than the one I had seen but with sharp edges that could have cut his digestive tract if they had moved. He was therefore opened up, and the stones were removed.

His diligence and determination were immediately evident as he wanted to run the morning after the surgery, and throughout his recovery, this little guy showed incredible patience and diligence. We had to keep him in a bodysuit to prevent him from getting at the stitches on his stomach (see picture). I bought two bodysuits to have one to change into and washed them by hand as soon as he had wet through one and put it on the heater to dry. He had a special mat to pee on because it wasn't feasible to undress him from the bodysuit every time he needed to pee. However, he could still poop while wearing the bodysuit.

It quickly became apparent that he didn't like being wet, and I saw him run to the heater to fetch a bodysuit. I thought it was a coincidence, but every time he got wet, he fetched himself a dry bodysuit.

Kolur is very habit-bound. For example, I had placed cushions in a large corner sofa we own, three cushions in each corner. Later, I thought it might look nicer to have two in each corner and then two in the middle, which I did. Then Kolur took it upon himself to move one cushion from the middle to one corner and then took the other cushion and placed it in the other corner. Every time I tried to change this, he did the same, so I finally gave up and let him have his way.

He is exceptionally gentle and kind. For instance, I was very sore in my whole body and hobbled into the kitchen to cook dinner one evening, then this sweetheart comes with a bone and lays it at my feet to give to me.

Whenever I came home from work, he would snuggle up to me as if I had been away for a long time. My husband and I caught a bad case of Covid last fall and were sick for two weeks. We had no one to take Kolur out during those two weeks, but he never whined or complained. I find it amazing how he seemed to understand that we were too sick to take him out, and he clearly didn't want to bother us.

Kolur is very musical. My birthday is in December, and shortly after we got Kol, I received a Christmas CD from Sweden as a birthday gift. Of course, as a little puppy, Kolur needed to nap several times during the day. I would put him in his crate and play the CD, and he would fall asleep. To this day, he wants to listen to this Christmas CD; he lies in front of the device in the living room and waits for me to play it. So, a Christmas CD is played in our home summer, winter, spring, and fall.

It's so fun to watch little puppies explore the world. They need to sleep a lot and fall asleep in the most incredible places. Here are two pictures of Kol when he fell sound asleep during an "exploration expedition," one where he fell asleep with his head on the frame of a desk chair.

The other, which is even cuter, he fell asleep trying to climb into a basket with blankets.

I always play music when I'm cooking or baking, whether it's Dire Straits, Cornelis Vreeswijk, or anything in between, he lies close to me and listens to the music.

I think he has an incredible understanding of words. He seems to understand everything one says, and it's no problem to teach him new words. In February 2020, when high schools were closed due to Covid, I taught through Zoom and then Teams. Of course, I didn't want Kolur to bark at anything while I was teaching, so I kept him with me in the room where my computer was. I taught him that we were going to work when we went in there and I closed the doors. In the mornings after breakfast, I always said to him, "Well, now we're going to work." Then he would run to the doors of the room where my computer was. In other words, we were going to work. He lay in the bed there with a bone to chew and water in a bowl on the floor. No matter how long I was teaching, there wasn't a peep from him. My students called him the assistant teacher and were half jealous of him for being able to lie in bed. When the students came to say goodbye in the spring, they also gave a gift to the "assistant teacher," which he greatly appreciated.

During this Covid time, I once had a student interview. The student was in the Westfjords, and we were talking through Teams. Her dog, an Australian shepherd, lay in a window seat right by her. Then her dog suddenly started barking loudly. "The mailman is coming," she said. When Kolur heard the barking of her dog, he, of course, started barking too. So, they barked at each other, across regions. One in the Westfjords, the other in Akureyri.

Kolur is also extremely polite. For example, when we are spreading cheese on bread, he sits and waits, without making a sound, because he knows that eventually, he will get a piece of cheese, even if he has to wait a long time. He can also say "mama," just like Bjartur. It's so funny that if he's asking to go out into the garden and thinks I'm being a bit slow, he'll mutter a bit at a low volume, and then comes "mama." In other words, "Mom, aren't you going to let me out?"

He is also determined and adventurous. In the summer of 2022, our daughter and her family came from Sweden in August because one of the grandchildren was to be confirmed. Understandably, there was a lot to do. The evening before the confirmation, everyone was rushing in and out, and someone hadn't closed the exterior door properly behind them. When it was clear that Kolur was missing, the whole family ran around the neighborhood looking for him. After a while, our son-in-law came back to the house to go in the other direction to look for him. Then there was Kolur, standing by the door, coming up to him with a look that said, "Aren't you going to let me in?" The relief was immense when he was back home.

I wish for us, the couple, and indeed the whole family, the fortune of having him with us for many, many more years.

Stokk-Sels Kolur II.

Born 18. september 2016. Breeder: Ragnhildur Sigurðardóttir