Thursday, January 27, 2011
Getting Koshka ready for a puppy
Monday, January 24, 2011
T-1
In one week, we should have a new puppy. EEEEeeeeeee!!!!!
Here's the before:
I had a puppy. His name was Snickers. He was really Jim's dog and we all loved him, but he didn't become my dog fully until his last year of life. How's that for timing? He was cute, and loving, and well-behaved and amazing to have around, and whenever work needed to be done with him, well, Jim did it. Then, Jim went to Iraq. All of a sudden, Snickers was mine. I thought it would be a chore....walking, feeding, letting him out, cleaning up after him, picking up poop, giving him baths, brushing him...but it wasn't. It became routine. It became comforting and wonderful. Jim came home and we were a family again and we moved to California. And then Snickers got sick. I wiped his nose. I cleaned up stuff. I hugged him and brushed him and talked to him and kept him near me all day. And then it was his time. My heart broke and I miss him so much. I cried. A lot.
A few months after he left I decided that I was ready to start thinking about a new dog. We couldn't have a new Cavalier. We all still hurt too much when we saw one. So, I began to research. I spend time reading, taking on-line surveys, talking to Jim and the kids, and looking at dogs in the neighborhood. All signs pointed towards a lab or a retriever, but I wanted something different. One day I was doing a different survey with all of the same requirements: large, but not giant; great with kids; won't eat my cat; likes regular walks, but won't tear up my house with its energy, and a new breed came up on the list of potential options that I had never seen before - an Estrela Mountain Dog. What is this? I dove right in, reading everything I could find on this 'new-to-me' breed.
The Estrela is from Portugal and is a guardian. "Always Protective, Never Aggressive" is what all of the sites said. Great with kids and sometimes even prefers them to grown-ups, okay with cats if raised with them, needs regular walks, discipline, and training, but is a plain old couch potato when not playing. Wow. That sounds like my family!
So, I began to research where I could find one of these animals. That was no small task. I soon realized that I had, once again, picked a breed that I was not going to find in the local pet shop or humane society. I prefer going through breeders, so that would have been okay if there had been breeders anywhere near me, but of course not! There were a couple on the east coast and some overseas. I was already hooked though, so I figured I would contact one breeder and just ask some more questions in the hope that in the next couple of years, maybe when we were back on the east coast, I could find a litter and adopt a puppy.
I met one of the nicest, most helpful, dog-loving ladies that I have ever had the pleasure of conversing with through her website. As my old Creative Memories consultant, Cathy, once said to me, I require a lot of attention and information. I won't make any decision until I feel like I know enough about what I'm doing. Cindy, the breeder, answered my e-mails full of questions day after day! I fell more and more in love with the Estrela and was so pleased and surprised that she had just bred one of her bitches and was hoping for a litter in December. I cried the day I got the e-mail that ten puppies had been born!
Since their birth, on December 2nd (my mom's b-day too!), I have been watching them grow. Through the puppy cam, and pictures, videos and e-mails from Cindy, I feel like I have been a full time part of my new puppy's life, but with her doing all of the work and the clean up. I am ready for the work to be mine!
Hopefully, in one week, we will be picking up our new little girl from the San Francisco Airport and bringing her home. Her "official" name is Ditto. We will probably name her Zuzu (like Zuzu's petals from "It's a Wonderful Life"), but we will wait until we meet her to make sure.
This blog will record her adventures with our family.
Here's the before:
I had a puppy. His name was Snickers. He was really Jim's dog and we all loved him, but he didn't become my dog fully until his last year of life. How's that for timing? He was cute, and loving, and well-behaved and amazing to have around, and whenever work needed to be done with him, well, Jim did it. Then, Jim went to Iraq. All of a sudden, Snickers was mine. I thought it would be a chore....walking, feeding, letting him out, cleaning up after him, picking up poop, giving him baths, brushing him...but it wasn't. It became routine. It became comforting and wonderful. Jim came home and we were a family again and we moved to California. And then Snickers got sick. I wiped his nose. I cleaned up stuff. I hugged him and brushed him and talked to him and kept him near me all day. And then it was his time. My heart broke and I miss him so much. I cried. A lot.
A few months after he left I decided that I was ready to start thinking about a new dog. We couldn't have a new Cavalier. We all still hurt too much when we saw one. So, I began to research. I spend time reading, taking on-line surveys, talking to Jim and the kids, and looking at dogs in the neighborhood. All signs pointed towards a lab or a retriever, but I wanted something different. One day I was doing a different survey with all of the same requirements: large, but not giant; great with kids; won't eat my cat; likes regular walks, but won't tear up my house with its energy, and a new breed came up on the list of potential options that I had never seen before - an Estrela Mountain Dog. What is this? I dove right in, reading everything I could find on this 'new-to-me' breed.
The Estrela is from Portugal and is a guardian. "Always Protective, Never Aggressive" is what all of the sites said. Great with kids and sometimes even prefers them to grown-ups, okay with cats if raised with them, needs regular walks, discipline, and training, but is a plain old couch potato when not playing. Wow. That sounds like my family!
So, I began to research where I could find one of these animals. That was no small task. I soon realized that I had, once again, picked a breed that I was not going to find in the local pet shop or humane society. I prefer going through breeders, so that would have been okay if there had been breeders anywhere near me, but of course not! There were a couple on the east coast and some overseas. I was already hooked though, so I figured I would contact one breeder and just ask some more questions in the hope that in the next couple of years, maybe when we were back on the east coast, I could find a litter and adopt a puppy.
I met one of the nicest, most helpful, dog-loving ladies that I have ever had the pleasure of conversing with through her website. As my old Creative Memories consultant, Cathy, once said to me, I require a lot of attention and information. I won't make any decision until I feel like I know enough about what I'm doing. Cindy, the breeder, answered my e-mails full of questions day after day! I fell more and more in love with the Estrela and was so pleased and surprised that she had just bred one of her bitches and was hoping for a litter in December. I cried the day I got the e-mail that ten puppies had been born!
Since their birth, on December 2nd (my mom's b-day too!), I have been watching them grow. Through the puppy cam, and pictures, videos and e-mails from Cindy, I feel like I have been a full time part of my new puppy's life, but with her doing all of the work and the clean up. I am ready for the work to be mine!
Hopefully, in one week, we will be picking up our new little girl from the San Francisco Airport and bringing her home. Her "official" name is Ditto. We will probably name her Zuzu (like Zuzu's petals from "It's a Wonderful Life"), but we will wait until we meet her to make sure.
This blog will record her adventures with our family.
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