Nice to Meet you – Part 2

I was born in Rosamond, California. I lived in a ranch-style home. In order to get to my house, you needed to leave the asphalt covered road and drive on a rock-paved road.

Mama and daddy, a bunch of city slickers from Las Vegas, Nevada, were quite intimidated when they left the asphalt covered road. Looking back, the rock-paved road didn’t require four wheel drive. Daddy, however, drove like a snail. Mama and daddy were both originally from the Bay Area and they never been to a city like Rosamond, let alone, drove on anything but a asphalt covered road.

My breeder didn’t have a chance to give me a bath because Mama and daddy arrived early. So she bathed me in the sink. I remember daddy saying how it smelled like wet dog when he got into the house. At the time, Daddy did not have great social manners. Don’t worry though because I will teach them to him.

One of the things that I taught daddy was how to say hello to people. I remember that I had a toy bird, which looked like a wild turkey  When I saw daddy sitting on the floor with my breeder, I dropped it in front of him. Daddy smiled. Daddy then threw the bird and I went to retrieve it. Of course, I didn’t return it right away. Instead, I ran around the couch with the bird in my mouth. I did at least two laps and then I got dizzy. Daddy smiled and laughed out loud.

Mama was a little more quirky and aloof. Mama didn’t really pet me. Instead, she just blew her nose a lot.

I heard Mama and Daddy talking about White Boy. I thought that was strange since White Boy was recently adopted.

Finally, when Mama and Daddy sat down at the dining table to sign the adoption papers, I went over and sat right in front of daddy. Daddy, who had zero experience with dogs, thought I was the smartest dog ever because I knew how to sit. Daddy put the collar around my neck and I just sat there and let him. Mama and Daddy gave me lots of praise about how smart I was simply because I knew how to sit.

My Breeder told Mama and Daddy that I should probably pee before I get into the car. When we exited the house, I ran over to the kennels and said goodbye to Purple Girl.

I told her that I was going on a short trip but I will be back…

 

 

Nice to Meet you – Part 1

I was sitting in the kitchen sink getting a bath. It was so humiliating getting a bath. Every time mama and daddy looked over, I kept saying “don’t look at me!” I was four months at the time but I was still living with my breeder. Mama and daddy were visiting to see if they wanted to adopt me.

The rest of my litter had already been adopted. Purple girl and I were the last remaining pups. Purple girl already had a home but her owners just didn’t pick up her yet. So I was the last golden that needed a home.

At the time, we didn’t have names. Instead, my breeder tied different color ribbons around our necks and called us by the color of our ribbons. I overheard her telling mama that she didn’t want to give us names otherwise she would get too attached.

When I was six weeks old, my breeder fed us a different brand of dog food. She ran out of the good stuff. Crunched for time, she purchased a bag of discount dog food at a nearby supermarket. The new brand was not very tasty (it probably wasn’t very healthy either). I don’t know how my litter mates ate it — bunch of savages. White boy, who was my best friend at the time, didn’t like it either so we decided that we weren’t going to eat the new dog food. Instead, we just wrestled and bit each others ankles.

We didn’t eat for a whole week.  I would like to make a couple of observations. First, puppies can starve themselves to death when they have better things to do than eating non-tasty food so please make sure that your puppy is eating. Second, always make sure that you have dog food in the house. Finally, OMG – looking back, I can’t believe that I didn’t eat for a whole week .

When my breeder realized that White boy and I weren’t eating, she took us into the house. We lived inside the house for two months. During that period, White boy and I continued to wrestle and bite each others ankles while our litter mates got adopted. I don’t really miss my litter mates — mama and daddy never got a chance to meet them. Plus I got to stay in the house with White boy, the humans,  and their four cats.

I enjoyed playing with the cats. I was sixteen pounds at the time and some of the cats weighed more than me. I remember distinctly that I drank from their water bowl and ran away when they hissed at me. It was a fun game.

to be continued….