Finding the *Perfect* Pup!

It has been WAY too long since I last posted to my blog and so much has happened.

First of all, we searched for many, many months for an American Eskimo or another small dog, visiting shelter after shelter. We even visited a couple of rescue agencies, one in Berkeley, and thought we had found the *Perfect* dog. We found an American Eskimo online and we arrived an hour before the rescue agency opened, waiting patiently. When the agency opened, we found out that the pup had gone to get neutered the night before, but would be arriving "soon". So we filled out paperwork and waited, and waited, and waited. Many people came and went, and we waited. Finally, the pup arrived, about 3 hours later. When he came in, he took a look at Cooper and ran to him. Cooper sat on the floor and the pup curled up in his lap. We thought "Oh, this is the *Perfect* pup for us!" So, I went to talk to the people running the agency and someone I had not talked to, said there was a couple that had called them and was waiting for the dog too.

So we waited, and waited. The agency person read over our application and said we couldn't have the dog, so I asked them if they would let us rescue another dog and they said no. They were concerned about the time the dog would be alone until the kids got home from school, and they said since we had not had a dog before they were concerned about letting us adopt one. I was pretty surprised because I thought the rescue agencies tried to find loving homes for animals and here they were turning us away after we had been looking for a dog for sooooo long. We sadly left the rescue agency and, to add insult to injury, found a parking ticket on our car.

Nonetheless, a few months later, my stepmother saw an ad in the newspaper advertising American Eskimo pups, so we went to meet the pups and fell in love with one of them. We brought him home and he has been happy and healthy member of our family ever since.

Koda is a very smart pup and has completed his Basic Puppy Training class and is well on his way to completing his Intermediate Puppy Training class. He is 8 months old now. Funny thing - looking at my last post, he was born 4 days before that post! We are so happy to have him as a member of our family.