Wednesday, January 13, 2010

A post from my Mom...

I will never forget the day Stu & I decided "Bernie needs a friend". It was not that we necessarily wanted another dog at the
time, but we knew we didn't want to feel guilty going out to dinner, or out with friends and leaving our adorable 6 month old furball, Bernie alone. I know, I know...not exactly the best reason to get a dog. But that just so happens to be how Buddy came into our lives. I scanned the rescue sections, a lot of rescues wouldn't consider Stu & I, since I was still in college and we didn't own our own home.
So since Stu grew up with Cocker Spaniels, he brought home the paper one Saturday and we started calling ads for puppies.
One breeder was about 35 minutes away, puppies were priced low at $350, AKC registered and parents on site.
((**note, at this time, I had no clue about OFA/CERF/proper testing that breeders should be doing!**))
We pulled up to a smaller house, there was a kennel area outside in the back, with 6 or so Cocker Spaniels. One little buff runt rant around our feet barking, as the breeder led us into his house, explaining that that his wife would not let him sell the runt, she was over a year old, and was bottle fed when she was a pup because her mom rejected her for some reason.
Inside the house, there were 3 puppies left running around playing. A gorgeous deep red puppy, and two twin chocolate and tan pups. All from same litter. We played with them for a good 30 minutes and Stu peeled the red pup our of my hands and told me "we cannot jump into this decision, we need to take a day to think about it"
Well I was sold, my heart was sold. All I wanted was that adorable red puppy, and the next 24 hours, me nagging and pleading...Stu finally said "Ok, let's go get the puppy"
When we got there, my red puppy was no where in sight. "Where is the one I wanted" I asked the breeder? Sold. Gone. Bye-Bye.
"But wait he said, some folks had put this buff one on hold, when they got here they fell in love with the red girl, so the buff one is back for sale" as he took us upstairs to see the buff puppy. The little buff cocker pup barked softly at us and licked my face over and over as I lay on the floor with him. It was all fate. We were meant to have this boy, we decided to call 'Buddy'.
His name seemed to suit him perfectly as he truly is everyone 'Buddy'.
Buddy and Bernie were instant friends....and the rest is history. We now have a total of 4 dogs. Although I love them each, Buddy & I have a special, different connection :)