visitation – Living, Loving, Laughing….

At Christmas, all Molly would ask Santa for, was a puppy. “A REAL ONE”, she would say. You see Grandma B (my mom) came to visit at Thanksgiving and she had four puppies with her. A Shih-tzu named Fred, two Papillions, named Buddy and Chevy, and Lola – a Yorkie. The girls fell hard for the “puppies”, but most especially for Fred, the Shih-tzu.

Molly and Fred – November 2009

I fell a little hard for Fred myself. He would just cuddle in your arms. He wasn’t too small, nor too big. He was fluffy and soft – and happy. What a great dog! I’m not a small dog fan. I have two big dogs for a reason, but this guy….oh my! He stole the show. I can see why the girls loved Fred and missed him when he went home, which led to Christmas, and birthday present requests for a puppy – a small one (insert sound of breaking heart).

It even went as far as, if they ever got a puppy, they would name it Brownie (if it was brown). I think I helped with that. Original and hungry – that’s me. Then one, or the other of the girls started “playing” Brownie. They would be a puppy named Brownie for about half an hour. We would go through the house calling for Brownie. Feeding Brownie. Making Brownie catch, fetch, and do tricks. It was cute, but an impossible dream, right?

We have two big dogs, a move coming up, a student in the Masters program, a teenager, and a wedding. A puppy? We just couldn’t do it. A cat….maybe…a little kitty – that was possible. But then you had the furniture being scratched up, the kids arms, hands, and fingers. The big dogs doing what nature tells them to – CHASE. I could see the scenes playing out; a big fiasco.

Then again, petting a kitty, and holding it on my lap – which I can’t do with the big dogs – seemed really nice. I got to thinking maybe a small dog would be more like a cat. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. No scratches, and when it chews fingers, it’s handed a toy. An outside potty that you don’t have to scoop (sorta). Hours of entertainment…..

Jason, however, is not a small dog fan. Obviously we had to convince HIM we needed a Fred. So, I tried the cat angle and convinced him how perfect it would be. It’s NOT a small yappy dog – it’s a CAT, really…. Somehow that sounded better than, let’s have THREE dogs. HA.

He finally agreed, but finding the time to find a mystery puppy wasn’t easy. The pound rarely had Shih-tzus. The ones I saw on Craigslist were too expensive. My mom didn’t know any Shih-tzu breeders. No time. No source. It would happen when it happened. Which could be years, until passing Petland on Friday night, I begged him to stop. They had a Shih-tzu puppy, a little boy – which we didn’t want since our house is 99.9% girls. But he WAS adorable and expensive! I told him the next morning I would look, just look, on Craigslist one more time.

And there she was under the title SHIH-TZU BABY. The last of the litter, ten week old Female. Oddly enough she was colored just like one of my earlier cats named Sugar (coincidence?); a tortoise calico. I looked at others but kept coming back to her. She just felt right. There was a young girl holding her and I could tell she would be okay with that. I told Jason why don’t I just call….and ask…….she might be gone already?

She wasn’t.

Not only that, but the parents were both pets bred on site. She was not a puppy mill dog. The family had three young children in which she had been picked up and handled since birth. How perfect.

I’ve come to realize that sometimes, the right times are at the wrong times. It’s all about perspective and that calling you get inside. The girls are at Jason’s for the month of July. What better time to bond with a new baby? So Brownie….became a REAL dog.

Brownie her first look at the new backyard.