My family usually had a dog around the house while I grew up, and when
both my daughters entered elementary school I started thinking seriously
about getting one for the family. I had always enjoyed their company,
and I thought the exercise of walking them would do me good. While I
mentioned getting a dog a few times, I tried not to press the issue, as
I knew my wife would wind up with a lot of the work of taking care of
them. Further, my wife grew up in cities with nothing larger than a
hamster as a pet and was long reluctant to take on larger animals.
However her brother's family took on two German Shepherds in the mid
90's, and our visits there made her more comfortable with the idea. In
the end I didn't have to say much as after the second mention of the
possibility my daughters took up the idea with a vengeance, bringing up
the idea every few weeks.

In the spring of 2002 my wife allowed us to think seriously about
getting a dog. In short order we visited the AKC dog show in
Albuquerque, and fostered four puppies from the Espanola shelter to see
how we would handle a new dog. The fostered puppies went over very well,
but were larger than what we wanted at the time, so we started searching
in earnest. Soon, however, our search foundered on conflicting
constraints. Our condo had a limit of 20 lbs on the combined weight of
all pets, and my wife wanted a puppy (they are so cute!) and a breed
that was easy to housetrain. Checking on breeds I discovered that small
dogs that are very easy to housetrain are rare on the field. The most
common such breed seemed to be the Basenji, and reading up on them
suggested to me that we were not ready to take on that task. I
investigated other breeds but I could never get enthusiastic about the
toy breeds, and the easy to housetrain small breeds were either larger
than the condo limit, about as difficult as Basenjis (Shiba Inu's), or
very rare. We therefore spent our time searching on the internet, and
dropping by mobile adoptions to check on rescue dogs, particularly
puppies.

On the Saturdays of Labor Day weekend, the local dog obedience club has
a well-publicized AKC competition and we decided to drop by and check
out dogs. We had a lovely time. The weather was gorgeous and the dogs
were lovely. While there we met a family we knew very well. They asked
us how our dog hunting was going, and we admitted that it looked like we
weren't going to get any. An hour or so later, as the competition wound
down we headed home.

About five minutes later, as was my wont, I shouted "PUPPIES!" A mobile
adoption from the Espanola shelter was in town near what was then a
pharmacy, now a Starbucks. I quickly parked, and we went over to check
out the dogs. They had several puppies, two of them noticeably smaller
than the rest, and we checked them out in detail. Both puppies were a
little over eight weeks old, from the same litter, with similar square
builds, and rough medium to short ACD style coats. One was a uniform
orange brown sable female with green eyes. The other was a brown male
with subtle brindling. We were all particularly taken with the female,
Sugar, who seemed very quiet. We asked them how big they thought Sugar
would get, as we were concerned about the 20 lb condo limit. The woman
who had been fostering them thought there would be no problem as they
were both part Chihuahua, and that Sugar was a wonderful puppy that
loved to bark to Mexican music. I was skeptical as the puppy looked
about the size of an adult Chihuahua already. I also didn't place as
much importance on the weight limit as my wife, figuring that as long as
we did our best to minimize problems with the neighbors no one would
care as long as our dog was under thirty pounds. In the end we adopted
Sugar; they gave us two sheets of paper, one said "chihuahua cross" the
other "shepherd cross;" we went to the local pet store to get collar,
food, bowls, and crates; then took her home and cleaned her up. We had
our puppy.

It took some adjusting to get used to "Sugar." First, her quiet state
ate the mobile adoption proved to be a gross feat of deception as she
started barking like crazy as soon as we got home. While she eventually
stopped that day, she still feels the need to tell us off when we
haven't been providing the style to which she would like to be
accustomed. The only times I have never noticed her bark was when we
played Mexican music. Second, we weighed her and discovered she was
about five pounds, so I started to worry that she might wind up more
than thirty pounds when an adult. Third, we decided that we did not like
the name Sugar and went through a name of the day period (Nutmeg,
Ginger, Almond, etc) before we finally ended up with Peanut, which
stuck. Fourth her eyes changed to a golden brown that closely match the
color of her coat. Finally we decided to celebrate her birthday on the
fourth of July, an easy day to remember, as it is my niece's birthday.

As time went on we got more involved with dogs. We discovered that the
local 4H had a dog obedience club, so my daughter's flipped a coin and
my youngest ended up taking Peanut to the club, eventually becoming the
longest serving member. As a result of the club, my daughter's now
volunteer every year to help with the obedience trials that in effect
caused us to adopt Peanut. They also regularly go to the 4H competitions
at the state fair in September. I decided that I really liked dogs and
decided to volunteer at our local shelter. The wife decided that we
needed a yard for a dog and so two years later we moved into a new
house. The family then decided we had enough room for a second dog so we
got Smokey, and my oldest joined 4H.

Peanut has grown on us on more ways then one. Her weight eventually
leveled off at just above forty pounds, but we never had any complaints
about her exceeding the condo's weight limit. While she was always
social we put in an extra effort socializing her, taking her every day
to the school bus stop to see off and pick up our daughters. She soon
became a favorite of all the neighborhood kids and adults, notorious for
her kissy attacks.

One thing we did not decide was when to celebrate her got day. Until
this year we celebrated it the Saturday of Labor day weekend, which, up
until this year, was also the first Saturday of September. This year we
could celebrate the Saturday of Labor day weekend (the last Saturday in
August) when we have the local obedience club competitions, the first
Saturday of September, when they have the state fair competitions, or
her ture got date which I think was the fourth of September. We are
celebrating both of the Saturdays.

To celebrate this week I finally started a FLICKR account to show photos
starting with photos of Peanut. Unfortunately it looks like I was
careless in backing up and we have lost our copies of photos of Peanut
as a puppy, but here is what I was able to find easily.

I think my sisters have copies of some of the photos we lost so I may
post them eventually.

On 2008-09-05 02:33:51 -0400, (William Clodius) said:



Thanks for sharing a wonderful story. Happy Got Week to Peanut and yout family!

She looks like a very lively spirit - and I love the picture of her in
the sand.

It's funny how dogs change our lives...

(William Clodius) wrote:


What a lovely girl!

Happy Got Week to Peanut!

--
Mary H. and the restored Ames National Zoo:
The Right Reverand Sir Edgar "Lucky" Pan-Waffles;
U-CD ANZ Babylon Ranger, CD, RA; ANZ Pas de Duke; and rotund Rhia

"William Clodius" wrote in message
...



Thanks for posting Peanut's story, she's had such an effect on your whole
family. It's a great story and a tribute to a fine dog.

She's a beautiful dog, just full of expression.

Oh, and I thought it was so funny that you practiced having your own dog by
fostering 4 puppies. If you could survive and enjoy 4 pups I'd say you were
ready for your own dog!

Happy Got Day Peanut!
Karla

"William Clodius" wrote in message
...
celebrating both of the Saturdays.

To celebrate this week I finally started a FLICKR account to show photos
starting with photos of Peanut. Unfortunately it looks like I was
careless in backing up and we have lost our copies of photos of Peanut
as a puppy, but here is what I was able to find easily.

I think my sisters have copies of some of the photos we lost so I may
post them eventually.



Congratulations, Peanut is quite photogenic, and lucky to have found such a
wonderful home.


td

filly wrote:

"William Clodius" wrote in message
...



Thanks for posting Peanut's story, she's had such an effect on your whole
family. It's a great story and a tribute to a fine dog.

She's a beautiful dog, just full of expression.

Thank you.

Oh, and I thought it was so funny that you practiced having your own dog by
fostering 4 puppies. If you could survive and enjoy 4 pups I'd say you were
ready for your own dog!

Having puppies around a couple of weeks over summer break with two
responsible kids around was not a big deal in itself. At that time they
were able to do most of the work, and viewed the work as fun. A bigger
issue was that one of the puppies got sick, Parvo I think, and when we
took him back to shelter to see their vet he was PTS. It was devastating
to my wife. She also got very emotional when we took the last two
puppies (we found one adopter walking them) back to be taken to a
shelter near Denver where there is a demand for mixied breed puppies.

Handling Peanut at the start of the school year was more awkward, but my
wife was between jobs due to health issues and needed a distraction.

Happy Got Day Peanut!
Karla

montana wildhack wrote:

On 2008-09-05 02:33:51 -0400, (William Clodius) said:



Thanks for sharing a wonderful story.
Happy Got Week to Peanut and yout family!

She looks like a very lively spirit - and I love the picture of her in
the sand.

The sandy Peanut and the picture of her walking across the log bridge
seem to have proagated all over our computers.

It's funny how dogs change our lives...
Yes.

Mary Healey wrote:

(William Clodius) wrote:


What a lovely girl!

Happy Got Week to Peanut!
Thanks

elegy wrote:

On Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:33:51 -0600, (William
Clodius) wrote:

To celebrate this week I finally started a FLICKR account to show photos
starting with photos of Peanut. Unfortunately it looks like I was
careless in backing up and we have lost our copies of photos of Peanut
as a puppy, but here is what I was able to find easily.

I think my sisters have copies of some of the photos we lost so I may
post them eventually.

she's a lovely girl.

happy got week peanut!
Thanks.

Happy "Got" week Peanut!!
I must admit I peaked (at the pictures) before reading the story of how
Peanut became part of your family. I thought he reminded me of a Shiba
Inu. Keep in mind I am far from being a breed expert particularly on
that breed. I know little about them and have only seen a few live and
in person. He looks like a happy little dog. He also looks like he has
quite the life. The picture of him and your father in law was
especially nice. I hope he has many more happy "Got" weeks with you and
your family. Thanks for the pics and the story.


Be Free.....Judy