A year after the death of our dog, we are adding a new one to our family. I was ready to do it a few months ago, but it had to be unanimous. In December, my wife and one holdout son agreed it was time.
We picked him out and were due to meet him earlier this week (Feb 20). Trust me, I will share baby photos with you until you scream, “No more!’’
Chipper was a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel – the best dog ever. We decided we wanted another King Charles, but we would go for a different colour. Our new guy will be a tri: black and white, with a bit of tan on his face. He won’t be Chipper and we promise not to make comparisons. We know there will be times when it will be difficult not to. I am sure he may end up with some of the same nicknames.
The decision to add this puppy ended a hobby I had taken up. I spent hours on a website, looking at pictures of Cavaliers. At any one time, there were about 50 on the site: Old ones, new ones, but never blue ones. I would get excited when new ones were added. (Yes, I know what you are thinking.)
I contacted some of the breeders. I spoke by email with people in Pennsylvania and Buffalo and Missouri and California. We found one in Buffalo that we wanted to bring home. My wife was ready to fly to Toronto to pick him up.
Suddenly, there were complications. We lost faith in the breeder and with every delay, the price of the airline ticket went up. It wasn’t going to work.
A woman in Missouri was wonderful to deal with. She could have our puppy shipped to Calgary or Minot. At that point, we would have had to drive him home. We worried about the trauma of a little guy flying solo. Apparently, purchasing a dog over the Internet is fairly common.
During my searching, I found a site for Cavaliers that had been rescued. We tried to adopt one. We would have taken two — a brother and sister. Sadly, the rescue people said they had enough people in California wanting these abandoned dogs so we wouldn’t be able to adopt.
They appreciated our interest and wished us well in our search, suggesting we adopt from our area. At a time like this, there is a certain amount of guilt in not rescuing a dog from a local shelter, but we really wanted a spaniel again.
As the search continued, we discovered the Borden-area woman — Louise Saunders — that sold us Chipper had two puppies that would be available on Feb. 20 or Feb. 27, whichever we preferred. As if we would wait an extra week? We picked the male. As you read this, I am hoping we have had a couple of sleepless nights. I mean that in a wonderful way.
