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Personal update: we have a puppy!

Yes, it is april 2022 and we have a puppy! In this article I share more about it :).

I love dogs. That has not always been the case. As a child I liked them until I was bitten by a small dog. I became afraid of dogs.

Fear of dogs

When I studied Applied Psychology I got to know Schapendoes Aagje. A Schapendoes is a dutch breed, loosely translated as; dutch Sheepdog. Aagje got me over my fear of dogs. She regularly stayed with me and I became a Schapendoes fan!
Schapendoes Aagje

Then it was time for a ‘own’ dog; I am grateful that Schapendoes Otje has been in my life for eleven years.

After that we wanted a Schapendoes (a girl) again; timing wise, we decided to listen to our gut.

A puppy from Sweden 🙂

Mathijs and I have been traveling the world indefinitely since 2017. We are currently in Sweden. Here came a litter with 3 Schapendoezen on our path, including 1 girl. Below I share some pictures and more about her character and her name:

Schapendoes puppy 4 weeks

We met the puppy when she was 4 weeks old (many breeders in Scandinavia do this).

This is our first photo together!

Femke de Grijs and Mathijs van der Beek with Schapendoes puppy of four weeks

She is now black and white with sporadic gray hairs (there is a chance it will stay that way).

Schapendoes puppy 4 weeks

schapendoes puppy sits

Her eyes are still blue, over time this color changes (they are expected to turn brown).

Schapendoes puppy 5 weeks

Femke de Grijs with a Schapendoes puppy of 5 weeks

Schapendoes puppy is five weeks, with Mathijs van der Beek

Schapendoes puppy is 5 weeks, with Mathijs van der Beek

Schapendoes puppy 6,5 weeks

We arrive in the evening. The girl (on the right in the photo) falls asleep on my lap. It’s my lucky night :). I hold her in my hands (the black/grey puppy ​​on the left that moves is her brother).

Schapendoes puppy lies with Femke de Grijs

The next day the puppies are introduced to our motorhome. The puppy lying against the fridge is the girl.

Schapendoes puppies aged 6,5 week lying in camper

Schapendoes puppy owned by Femke de Grijs and Mathijs van der Beek

Schapendoes puppy of 6,5 weeks plays with Femke de Grijs

Character Schapendoes puppy

When we visit her, the puppy is usually the first to wake up and the last to go to sleep. She is more active, curious and inquisitive compared to her brothers. Ze  loves to discover the world just like we do. If she was human, she was probably a (digital) nomad ;).

We are grateful that the breeders entrusted us with this girl and she is our new puppy. A perfect match! We are very happy with this. We picked her up on Saturday, April the 2nd, 2022.

Announcement of here name!

How we came up with the name

Before the puppy was born I had made a list with possible names. In the course of time and after the meeting with the puppy, this has expanded considerably.

The puppy was born in Sweden in Skäne. When we got to know her we were staying in Småland. We regularly spend the night with the camper on the coast near the puppy, so that we could admire her for several days.

Mathijs van der Beek is in a camper

The name came to me through a lucid dream

During one of those nights, I had a lucid dream (a dream in which I became aware that I was dreaming while my body was asleep). I decided to investigate what name we could give her. I got through five names. Many of those names were on my very first list and we had already discussed. One name had my preference right away in my dream.

When I woke up I shared the dream and the name options with Mathijs.

We are happy to share the name:
Welcome Schapendoes Juultje (painted by Femke de Grijs)

It has become Juultje!

How did the first week go?

We picked up Juultje with our motorhome and she made her first trip with us! The travel went fine. We took regular breaks. At some point she fell asleep.

Schapendoes puppy is in our motorhome next to a water bowl

Schapendoes pup sleeping in our motorhome

When she first entered our temporary home, she acted as if she had lived here for years.

Schapendoes puppy of 8 weeks lies under couch

She likes to be around us.

Schapendoes puppy of 8 weeks sits under the couch and looks up at Mathijs van der Beek

Juultje likes to discover new things, such as our temporary garden. Here she regularly hops around happily.
Schapendoes puppy runs in garden
For example, she sniffs and plays with leaves and twigs and digs open molehills a bit. Her white paws remain surprisingly white.

Schapendoes puppy with molehills

She is also introduced to various weather conditions such as rain and snow.
Schapendoes puppy with Mathijs van der Beek in snow

Schapendoes puppy of 8 weeks eats snow

Juultje is almost newspaper-trained.

Schapendoes puppy sits by newspaper

We teach her to pee outside. Sometimes this goes well :).
Schapendoes puppy pees outside

We do our best to socialize her optimally and, for example, to introduce her to stimuli (such as other dogs and people) that she will also have to deal with in the future. She also sleeps a lot, so everything can be processed well ;).

Schapendoes puppy sleeps

We think Juultje is a fantastic puppy and we are grateful that she came into our lives :).

About Femke de Grijs and Mathijs van der Beek

We are Femke and Mathijs: a Dutch couple and we are both highly sensitive and highly intuitive/paranormal. We feel a non-physical presence beyond the visible site and we are very interested in spirituality and sacred places.

At a moment we felt like there was more in life than our comfort-zone in The Netherlands. We followed our hearts. We sold our house in The Netherlands. We disposed of almost all our stuff and we live like digital nomads. We travel the world since 2017 with our dog Juultje (born in 2022) and we go wherever we want.

While we are traveling we are also helping highly sensitive and paranormal persons to discover their divine calling and soul purpose and live it, so they can feel alive too.

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