This is puppy. We sorta call him Tripper. As in Jack Tripper, yes. He’s a boy puppy. He’s chilling with two lady dogs and Three’s Company!
But is it? Polly is having the worst 24 hours of her life.
Backing up – we went to the MWA West Side chapter’s banquet on Saturday night. I had high hopes of winning the raffle for a $1,000 – sadly, I did not. Anyway, this great dog breeder & trainer always donates a puppy for their fundraiser, and because WE always BID on the puppies, we had several conversations prior to Saturday night about how we did not need another dog right now, that it’s better to get a puppy in the Springtime, that we definitely would not get a male dog, and we wanted to pick our own puppy from a litter.
So then I’m thinking about all of that at 10:32 p.m. as I’m driving home with a puppy on the front seat. It wasn’t lack of stamina or willpower! But it was an audience of people who wouldn’t bid on the puppy until it went to $100. Now, keep in mind – this dog is out of field trial champions, AKC purebred, hips & eyes guaranteed, all the things Polly was/is, and you normally don’t purchase a dog like that for less than $500. So James stepped in and bid on the dog so we could find it a proper hunting home and hopefully someone who saw the value in the pup as well. (We’re not trying to make money, we’ll donate the money back to MWA.) The man who brought the pup for the breeder actually has his litter mate & paid over $700 for his dog. So it was making us feel sick inside, that we had this amazing dog and nobody really wanted him!
He’s an amazing little dude. He hasn’t had a single accident, he’s 4 months old, he has almost curly fur, has huge paws, and feels like crushed velvet.
In less than one day, he’s already picking up on “Sit” and “Here”. He’s going to be one hell of a retriever!
If nobody buys him, we’re keeping him, of course. I’m doing an excellent job of not falling in love, maybe because we’d gone through allll the reasons not to get a puppy right now & I had already walked down memory lane the night before on how much WORK it takes to raise and train a puppy. That’s why I said “sorta” calling him Tripper, because it just doesn’t feel “right” or complete. I think his forever home is someone who wants to maybe run field trials in addition to duck and goose hunting. He’s got that much genetic stuff packed into his stocky little self, loose skin and all, and if I can see it, it’s there.
But my poor dog. Oh lord. Tripper dude got a few of her not-played-with-in-forever toys? And the green-eyed monster was OUT. Every time he lost interest, she snuck in to steal the toy back. I have yelled “PILLOW” more times today than I have in three months. Suzy? She is perturbed but sort of pretending this situation will resolve itself, preferably while she’s asleep so she can wake up and Normal will have returned. But Polly is jealous, and upset that I’m doting on him and petting him, and is all sorts of put out. She needs to mellow another year or two before a puppy comes to live with us for good, because right now it’s like a grounded 21 year old who isn’t allowed to do anything fun, but the foreign exchange student can run off and do whatever he wants. With her car. And ropey.
He IS darn cute.