We knew we wanted another Labrador Retriever, and, since neither of our asthma kids were troubled by living with Duke, we wanted our new dog to be one of his relatives. We'd also been warned that established breeders frequently have more buyers than puppies, so it would be wise to get our name on their spring list early.
With all that in mind, in early December I called the kennel that Duke's mother came from. We could certainly get on her wait list, the breeder said. But if we were interested, she had a nice litter who would be ready to go shortly after Christmas.
"Oh, no!" I said, horrified at the thought. There were SO MANY reasons not to get a dog that soon, with "adequate time for mourning" and "house breaking in the winter" leading the list. Then Dad died, and getting another dog was the last thing on my mind.
Fast forward to shortly after Eldest's birthday. I was cleaning up the kitchen and ran across the notes I took during my conversation with the breeder. Scanning them, I was reminded that she had suggested I call her after the first of the year to talk about the litters she'd have available in 2012.
A few days later I gave her a call, she and I had a lovely chat, I sent her some pictures of Duke so she could see what type of dog we were looking for, she sent me back some pictures of pups she had ready to go now (yes, the same ones she'd told me about in our first conversation) .....
I'm pretty sure you know where all this is heading.
He arrived last night (he flew in on Delta! First we had dad's cremains mailed from Iowa to Tennessee for burial, now we got a dog via airmail ... I am pondering all of the other things I could have shipped to me, and thinking that it might be possible to never set foot in a store again), and has been the center of delighted attention ever since.
I am so glad we didn't wait until spring.
p.s. No name yet. We have many ideas, but next to no consensus. For now, he is "The Pup to be Named Later".
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