Tuesday, November 28, 2006
A Perfect Angel For One Whole Day
On Sunday morning, one week to the day since I had met Daisy, I got a call from her breeder. Of course, a feeling of dread washed over me as I recognized his name and number on my caller ID. Oh my god, I thought, why would he be calling?? Something must have happened to Daisy! With a bit of trepidation, I answered the phone in an artificially calm voice. The breeder barely took the time to identify himself (which you and I know was unnecessary because of the caller ID--but he didn't know) before he asked, "When are you planning to pick up this puppy?" His voice was harsh, and I sensed, slightly angry. "Well," I told him, "we were planning on leaving here around noon. Will that be ok?" Imagine my shock when he replied, "The sooner the better, as far as I am concerned! The rest of the litter is gone, and this puppy is driving me nuts!" I decided that we would leave a little earlier because my poor little girl needed a quick rescue. "We'll be there around noon. See you then." I hung up the phone with a bit of aggression and began talking to myself. Geez, that was rude. What could a sweet little puppy like that possibly do to drive someone nuts?? AND, I continued to rant to no one, he kept calling her 'this puppy'! I told him last week to start calling her Daisy!
After a frantic call from me, Jacob arrived in plenty of time for us to reach the breeder's house by noon. I had everything ready to pack in the car: kennel, puppy food, water, toys, collar, lead, and a washcloth, soaked in water and sealed inside a ziploc baggie; in case she wasn't perfectly clean, I could give her a "sponge bath" during the ride home. I put the baggie on the dashboard to soak up the warm sun through the windshield, so if I had to use the washcloth, it would be warm. Puppies can easily get a chill.
The ride seemed very long, of course, because I was so filled with the maternal instinct to go save that poor puppy before that breeder said or did something to her that might damage her self-esteem.
The two adult dogs weren't in the side yard when we arrived at the breeder's, and yet he still answered the door without us knocking, which made me slightly suspicious that he must sit around spying out the window for intruders all day. Talk about paranoid!
As we stepped into the house I was surprised that the breeder seemed as pleasant as I had remembered from the week before. He was sighing a lot, like he was relieved about something. I wanted to get out of there with my little angel and not hang around for niceties, so we tied up all the business and headed for the door. The mother dog looked exhausted and didn't seem even slightly interested that we were stealing her last baby, and I noticed the dad dog sniffing the mother dog a little too insistently for my taste. As we walked over to the car, the breeder waved goodbye and called to us, "Good luck! That puppy sure likes attention!" I smiled and waved back and as soon as I got into the car and shut the door, I said to Jacob, "Don't you think it's a little odd that the mother almost seemed glad to see her go??"
As was our usual practice, we had plans to spend the rest of Sunday at my mom's house, which was about 2/3 of the way home. I carried my pride and joy into the family room, and attempted to shove the new puppy into my mother's arms. Mom said she would rather look at her from a bit of a distance, so I stepped back and showed her off proudly. You will be happy to know that she DOES have a corkscrew tail! My mom, who has an eagle eye for detail, noticed that Daisy had a perfect little heart shaped black marking covering her nose and we discussed if we could fit her 'heart nose' into her full name somehow. We all ooohed and aaahed over her for the rest of the afternoon, and were decidedly amazed at how well behaved the perfect little angel was. She didn't utter a sound, she piddled on the grass the minute Jacob set her down in it, she cuddled and she slept and when it was time for us to eat dinner, she didn't even complain when I put her in he
r kennel next to the dining table while we ate.
After dinner, I was so exhausted from all the excitement of the day, that I sat down on the love seat with Daisy asleep across my chest, and dozed off. Jacob, having inherited a wicked sense of humor from my side of the family, recognized the opportunity to take a scandalous photograph of Daisy and me; she asleep and adorable, me with my head back and my mouth wide open with the tiniest bit of drool hanging out of the side of it. The flash of the camera woke me up and I opened my eyes just as Jacob tried to scurry away. Evil kid...!! And damn whoever invented camera cell phones. Needless to say, that picture was so unflattering I have only shown it to my mother, my son and my sister, and it will most certainly never see the light of day in my memoirs!
Don't forget to stop in again for DAISY, DID THAT SMELL COME FROM YOU? coming soon.
"Tedd" 
"Scarlett" 
