After working in financial services for about 10 years, I thought Trish and I were going to move to Dublin, Ireland for a temporary assignment. It didn’t end up happening, but we thought maybe we would get the chance to live overseas someday.

Now that we were settled for a while, I persuaded Trish that it was time to get a house with a yard so we could get a dog. We bought a nice little house in Swampscott, then promptly adopted our first Siberian Husky a few months later. Our beautiful Schobel was nearly 10 when we rescued her, living another 4 years full of great adventures.

After Schobel passed away, we started talking about adopting another dog. Trish asked me whether I might take an international assignment, but I did not think it would be anytime soon. Since we were not going anywhere, we found a 6-year old Siberian in need of a new home, and Silverbear joined our family.

Wouldn’t you know it, two months later I found an opportunity to move to London. We sorted through all of the rules and it turned out Silver could come along as long as he was cleared of rabies (a 6-month process). We were on our way.

In October, 2010, I moved to London. It was such a strange feeling when I arrived at Heathrow airport. I had just flown with a one-way ticket to my new home. It must have been equally strange for Trish and Silver, living on their own until they joined me in March, 2011.

We had an amazing time in London, meeting many great friends and traveling to places we never expected. Silverbear enjoyed Britain even more than we did, going to many pubs, cafes and parks, not to mention getting photographed with tourists at all the hotspots. He also went to Wales, several English beaches, Stonehenge and was allowed into Salisbury Cathedral. It was lucky for us and him that we did not know we were moving to London. We would have all missed out.

When Silver passed away unexpectedly in 2016, we were heartbroken. We might have gone a month before we looked around and found another Siberian in need of a home. Easter weekend, we adopted the 3-year old Roli.

Wouldn’t you know, 6 months later we decided it was time to move back to the US. As strange as it sounds, we brought one Husky from America to London, then brought a different Husky from London to America. I guess it all balances out.

Have you ever had something work out so well that you were thankful you did not know enough not to do it?