My Sky Color

A forty something Dad, Husband, Engineer guy living in Western Oregon. Reflections on all things in life. A few technical things and whatever else comes along.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Dave Gets a Critter



I grew up with a big dog and a little one too. We always had a Golden Retriever and a Daschund. When I was a teen I had my golden retriever, "Link." He was a great friend! He died while I was in college of old age. I have always wanted another big dog but it never worked.




For a short time we rescued a Neopolitan Mastiff, "Grace." We really like her but out house and yard were not a good fit. She also had baggage from a strange up bringing. So I have had to just research and wish for the chance to get a large dog. We had decided that a puppy in the spring would be the right plan. I had chosen a few breads that would be good, besides a Neo.





Last Sunday in the new paper there was an add for dogue de bordeaux puppies at a decent price. Meaning less than thousands of dollars. So I called... I even set up an appointment to look at the puppies. The night we were scheduled to meet the lot it was a snow storm. We ended up in the hills be Washougal, WA driving in 6" of snow on the road.





So we met the adult dogs first. Sirus was first. He was an uncle to the puppies. If there was an NFL for dogs he would be the steroe typical physique for a star lineman. He was unbelievably solid but a big snuggle bunny once you met him. We met the mom and she was much smaller, thank goodness. We me the dad and he was a reasonable size. Then here came the puppies, all seven of them. There were about the size of a full grown pug. It was mayhem. My two boys were rolling around on the floor with 3 to 4 puppies working them over. There were a couple others chasing around and Sirus was keeping me company.





To choose a possible keeper, at that point, looked impossible. After a few minutes we removed one that was spoken for. Then we examined their under bite. Their Mom has a bad one and the litter was an oops. That is why the reasonable price. Let me interject here that the youngest boy had decided that he was going to choose the puppy and the name because he felt slighted on someother animal choices in the past. So now we are all on a mission to sway the choice to fit everyone's hidden agenda. We narrowed it down to 3 pups. One was very light tawny colored and sweet to me. She was one of the smaller ones, too. Eventually we got the dog of choice and settled with the owner. By this time it is after 9 pm and we have a wintery drive to get home that is 40 miles away. And don't forget we have to stop and get puppy supplies. We got home at 11 o'clock. That is very late for this family as any of our friends will tell you.






The first night was straight from the puppy handbook. We had a whining, howling, barking, fruit cake of a puppy in our house. To make it even better I was coming down with the crud. It started with a sore throat and by morning my head felt like it would explode if some one lit the fuse. Thursday was the first full day with the new puppy. Things went pretty well because school was canceled and puppy got lots of attention.




I received a phone call at work during the day. What I heard was, "Okay, here's the list." What list? "The name list: Princess, Lucy, Daisy, Ursa, and Remy." I made a few suggestions that were not looked upon nicely by the 7 year old in charge.





The second night was not much better than the first and I was officially sick. I had several things that needed taken care of at work so I went. I got a call on Friday that the name was Remy. R-long A-M-long E. Like Raymee. It took a little but it works. It is way better than the first choice of Princess.




The third night was absolute bliss, with only a couple whining spells. Remy is doing pretty good. She is discovering lots of new things like stairs, goats, chickens, snow, Chewie (the resident black Pug), cats, going outside in the wee hours of the morning to "do your business." Of course we are learning many new things, like 9 week old puppies don't like to go sledding. You can take a puppy outside but you can't make it pee...







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