What do I want

It all started on Thursday when my husband called me and told me to look at the link that he had sent to my email. I did, and there were puppies. Adorable, fluffy, intent, Leonbergers to be precise. There is perhaps no word in the English dictionary to describe how cute those puppies were, and frankly I don't have the time to research them in the thesaurus. Just take my word for it, they were tooth achingly cute.

For the past year my husband and I have discussed adding another dog to our household. Since our current Berner is four years old, and has successfully battled a cancer that has lead to her on and off again health, it has been a raging debate on whether it would be fair to her. However, these past two months we have noticed that Serenade is now starting to stand up more slowly, and is calculating whether or not getting up to is up to her best interest. With this slow decline in health, it became obvious that we would eventually have to get a new dog.

Still, the shock of my husband being the one to initiate the dog search was rather startling. After I got over the shock of the pictures, I shot off a texted and asked him, "Why? Why are you showing me pictures of puppies now?" After the normal delay that one expects from a text the reply back surprised me. He wanted me to learn. For the past few years I have been trying to figure out the AKC, dog competitions, and hit this beautiful glass wall. I can see all the things going on, on the other side of course. I have not been able to find the door. He decided it was time I found the door. Thus puppies were being sent to me, link after link. The Leonberger was a breed that we had discussed for the past three years (they were admitted into the AKC officially this past June), the Great Dane was another breed that we had discussed many times, but were never able to speak to the three breeders that family friends and co-workers had recommended. Looking at all the puppies out there, I did want to run my fingers through them, and introduce myself to them, but the majority of me kept turning my chair and looking at my gorgeous Bernese Mountain Dog. I wanted a Bernese Mountain Dog.

For the past year and a half I have casually paged through Petfinder.com, seeing if there were any Berners out there that needed homes. Over and over again one particular rescue group came up with Berners that they have saved from puppy mills. These dogs have been used as breeders or are puppies that have been taken due to over crowding and poor care. They have also taken in rescues that were dumped at shelters. Not only does this rescue go out and place these dogs in good homes, they continue one with training.

One particular bitch was posted that look like she would be perfect for our family. She and her brother (both a year old) had been dumped in a shelter over the Fourth of July weekend. I have never 'adopted' a dog before. I have only talked to breeders, and purchased Serenade. My mom when she obtained the Irish Wolfhounds that we grew up with talked to the breeders and would sometimes drive hundreds of miles to pick up one of the three dogs that I grew up with. So the idea of 'adopting' is not something I am familiar with. I first called the organization, and then sent them an email as well. Then sat back and bit my fingernails for the rest of the weekend.

When I finally got the first email from a person in the organization, it was to inform me that the pretty girl that I had wanted to meet (to see if she was compatible with Sere) had already been placed. There was good news though, or sad news, depending on how you want to look at it; the organization had just rescued three twelve week old female berners from a puppy mill.

After thinking about it, mulling it over, and discussing it, we decided that perhaps the puppy would be better to obtain then an older dog. Sere would perhaps adjust better with a younger dog. We know she is going to be assertive, and yes, jealous, when the new dog arrives. Obtaining a puppy instead of an adolescent might make pack adjustments more simple. On that I suppose we shall see. So, we contacted the organization and told them that we would are interested. I also informed my contact (VB) that I would like to learn carting, and other canine sports. She has agreed to mentor me. I was and am so ecstatic!

So, we come to today. Today was a busy day. In order to obtain the pup we must have a fence. Yes, a fence. We had always meant to get a fence when Sere joined our family, but when we discovered that with her illness if she exercised to much she would be severely sick for the next three day, we learned to keep her exercise time short (short walk, short play-nothing overly strenuous), when she was younger she didn't know when to stop. Now that she is older she can give us a look and will just stop and we will sit and let her rest. The fence therefore never became a large priority. Now it has become one.

I have so far called the city and obtained an application for permit to install a fence ($40.00-and an inspection once it is put up), called the Ohio Utilities Protection Agency, to ask that they send out the proper people before we start digging fence posts and hitting gas wells, and been trying to figure out where we want to install this darn contraption! On that front we will have to wait until the father-in-law returns from his out of town trip to offer up his advice.