feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

today is my orion's 10-month-old birthday (almost a year old!!!!)... and i find myself looking back over the last 8 months or so he has spent with us, and feeling quite nostalgic/sniffly.

how did you all meet your puppies? i'll tell you how i met my orion...

our yellow died unexpectedly last november - and our hearts were truly broken - i didn't think i could cry so much as i did in the week following his death (and still get teary when i think of him). we swore no more dogs for at least a year. it was just too hard! then i began to dream, so often, of a black male labrador named orion.... i would wake up thinking - why am i having these dreams???

fast forward to the beginning of december...a friend of mine posted a photo of his dog's litter of 10 puppies (her first litter - she had 10!!!!)... half were chocolate, and half were black. i immediately messaged him -- "are you selling them?" he replied in the affirmative. i replied, "how many do you have left???" he said, "one black male." i replied, "i'm on my way!" and was out the door grabbing keys with one hand and wallet with the other, and clear forgot my jacket on a 20-something degree night!!!

i arrived, and walked in to the PUPPY SMELL... how glorious... and 10 fat, wriggling, swarming puppies who were overjoyed at a new person to say hi to. of course, i plopped down and they swarmed all over me... i asked him which one was still available. he said, "any one of the black males is still available, except the biggest one - he's spoken for - but no one has specifically chosen any of the others, they've only said they want one."

so one by one, he handed me the four black males available... i held each, played with each, kissed each, and each one did the same thing - enthusiastic nips and nibbles and kisses, then wriggled to be put down and go and play with their littermates. that is, until the fourth one... my friend picked him up and said, "and this one's the runt..." and handed him to me.. he immediately snuggled into my neck (i can still feel it!) and SIGHED - the sweetest puppy exhalation ever. my friend's wife said, "oh my gosh... he picked you!" he would not let me put him down.... nor did i want to. and i said to my friend... "this one is mine. here's the money. when can i come back and take him home?"



so... really...orion chose me. and yes... his name came from the dream i kept having after my yellow died. i like to think he was telling me, from somewhere up there across the rainbow bridge, that this was to be my next furbaby so i wouldn't miss him so much.

and just for fun... here's the youtube with the PUPPY REVEAL.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2dLPSTnuTU&list=UUvAnmKWdpNh1rp4ZWnA1S2Q (i had told the kids they got one present early, for them both... and they had to open it together. inside the box... you'll see. ) (and no, the puppy wasn't in the box!!!! everyone told me later how panicky they got, thinking the poor puppy was being all banged around in there. HAHA)

how did you meet your furbabies??

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

Oh my gosh what a fantastic story!! That so amazing!!

I knew for a long time that I wanted a dog. I finished my A levels and went to college to study a diploma in animal management and started a work experience placement at my local dogs home. Two years later I qualified and went to work there full time. My obsession with dogs was born

In 2012 I met a little staffi called Scooby and fell in love with him. I was about to move in with my OH and start work at another dogs home closer to where I lived so we were all set up to adopt him. I had a two week holiday to Kenya and if Scooby was still around when I got back I would adopt him. He found his forever family before I went on holiday and I was heartbroken. I think I actually grieved him a little as we never got an update from the new owners and it was like he just vanished into thin air! I put him in their car, off they drove and never looked back I put my heart and soul into rehabilitating that little dog and now all I have is photos I took on his last day with me.

After I started work at the new dogs home we decided we would eventually get a puppy and started saving and looking around for litters. We decided on a Labrador because we had a lot of family and friends who were not dog people so we decided it would be best if we got a 'friendly' breed (as supposed to those with negative press such as rotties or German shepherds - though I would have had one in a heartbeat!).

The first litter we went to visit on a whim really - we were just going to look. We weren't going to fall for the first one we saw, we would go away and think about it. Yeah right!!

There was one male and one female left and we couldn't decide between them. So we decided the only fair way to do it was to flip a coin!! It came out in my favour so we ended up with the girl.

"Oh they must have been a lucky penny!" The breeder said to me "you'll have to call her Penny now!"

And funnily enough that was on our list of potential names

Two weeks later we brought home our bundle of fluff and never looked back

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

o, lauren, i love your story too!!! and what a GREAT way to pick her name... 'twas meant to be, truly, even with the heartbreak over the sweet staffi.... it was preparing your heart for the overflowing love of penny.

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

My darling girl , a yellow Labrador called Tess , had to be euthanized due to cancer of the liver , I swore that I would never have another Lab . When she died , she left behind her companion of many years , our little terrier Lily who suffered from seizures , they had never been apart and Lily was missing her friend terribly , sitting looking out of the window for her to come home, just heart breaking . I realised that I also missed having a big dog around, having always had terriers and gundog breeds , and so , three months after Tess left us , I heard about a litter , well bred with care and not too far from us on Dartmoor and so we chose Sam . Lily took to him and he to her , she gained her confidence back again , they clearly adored one another . Sadly Lily died , Sam was only nine months old but he had enriched her life . This left us with one sad boy , and so we rescued little Flynn from the Blue Cross , an adorable little terrier who worshipped Sam , they settled into a wonderful relationship when , out of the blue Flynn began to have fits , they could not be stopped by the medication that had helped Lily , he was having up to five a day, cluster seizures . To cut a sad story short , we had to say goodbye to darling Flynn as his brain could not take any more , and so poor Sam was once more alone , three dogs lost in three years and two of them were his very best friends, he hated being an only dog, was subdued and stressed . Last year , against all our promises and self resolve , we rescued Millie , Sam was overjoyed to have another pal . For us, it was a case of " Here we go again, are we setting ourselves up for heartache ? " we had no background on Millie , a former stray and we have certainly had our share of worries with her but , that's life !

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

Lovely story :'(

I had two lovely 15 year old Cavaliers and Callum sadly died very suddenly of heart failure. Gavin was bereft so I decided to bring forward my plans to get a Black Lab, having recently retired (well, any colour for me, I secretly wanted a yellow! Hubby said black as it doesn't show the dirt! which is true) My friend and I were going to get littermates, but she wasn't quite ready as she had a holiday booked.

So I found a KC breeder with a litter with Mum and Dad both 0:0 hips and eye scores and went along with my son.

We immediately fell for a little black bitch - she was fiesty and cheeky whereas all the others were snoozy and placid

My son named her 'Tatze' after his friend's Guide dog (He lives in Heidelberg and Tatze means 'paw' in German).

Tatze was brilliant with Gavin, my Cavalier and Gavin taught her doggy manners very quickly as he had very old bones and couldn't play. My lovely Gavin passed away in my arms two months later, I cried a river, but he was no longer pining for Callum and passed away peacefully.

Tatze has kept us on our toes ever since!

My friend got her back lab (male) Zaba - a month later and they have been best of friends ever since. We look after each other's for holidays.

Now we also have 17 week old Gypsy, Guide Dog Puppy - and Tatze is the best Big Sister ever!

The bed in these photos is the same one - first with Gavin and Tatze, now with Gypsy and Tatze. Gavin let Tatze on if she didn't move a paw - as soon as she moved he saw her off

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

We have had quite a traumatic couple of years, Duncan yorkie died last January and we got Betty Chihuahua to keep Mollie company, then Mollie (retriever cross collie) died this January and we were faced with having to find Betty a companion. As she was used to a bigger dog and although my husband is quite happy walking the tiny ones we thought it might be best to get a bigger dog. The hunt began. We found Elsie I would like to say we got her from an excellent breeder but although she sounded great on the phone first visit we knew she was in it for the money and little else bothered her. We made the decision to buy Elsie and TBH if we could have afforded to do so we would have brought them all home, filthy place and none of them looked happy.

Elsie has had a few problems and we are a work in progress, but we have her healthy and happy now so hopefully with work she will be a fantastic dog.

Certainly within about 4 hours she had wormed her way into our hearts so she will be with us for ever whether she calms down and becomes the best behaved in the world or if she remains the challenging girlie she is at the moment nothing will part us.

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

Oh gosh ,tears happy and sad in all the stories stories.....mine isn't quite so emotional.
I met Chris in 1997 and in conversations we had he always said he wanted a yellow lab,whenever we saw one out and about he would make a beeline for it and would always show me a cute pic or call me because one was on tv.As the years went by I would ask him what he would like for Christmas or Birthday and he always said a yellow lab.He has never had a dog or been around dogs growing up ( I had a little but only from the age of 16 .....and Mum did all the work : ) and with there being so many challenges to having a dog out here,not to mention I was Cabin Crew until 2005 I always had the veto on the decision.I was quite firm that we couldn't have a dog until we could give it plenty of time.In the meantime a guy came to work with Chris who had a black working lab and cocker that he had brought out from a breeder in Scotland ,his family and friends had all taken labs from this particular guy,so it became accepted that when we could eventually manage a dog we would get him from one of this Breeders litters.
I came to a point where I wasn't working and we decided to make the call and see if there was a yellow boy available .....there was We saw the parents health test papers,a video of Dad,a photo of Mum ( Both black ) and some photos and videos of Dexter....and that was it,we said yes,and basically chose our dog over the phone!
He came to us at 5 months ( he could have come at 4 months in line with import rules but there was a mix up with his DOB ??? )
We trusted the reputation of the Breeder completely and we've since met but I would never do it again ......although I say I will never own a young dog again.....(I know you can and do ,but I cannot imagine raising another yellow fellow after our Dex....)IF hypothetically we did I would want my dog from 8 weeks,putting up with all the puppy terrors we missed, to be able to socialize him thoroughly.Dexter wasn't/isn't bad but if I knew then as much as I know now.....I would have been the breeders nightmare!
He was named after The American serial killer series ;D just because we liked the name....butninalsomdid have a hankering after 'Jasper' When the kitchen used to be decorated with blood spatter patterns from his broken tail we considered that quite we'd named him right :-\ :'( ;D
He is our 4 legged world and I can't imagine not having him now but if I had my time over I wouldn't have a dog living in Dubai x

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

Ok, we'd lost our old girl about a year before. She died suddenly and we swore never to have another dog, it was too heartbreaking. Well a year went by and we decided to change our minds and get ourselves another little girl. I was looking at breeders, we'd decided we wanted a yellow lab. We went out one Saturday to buy a new hoover and ironing board and came back with meg. Where we lived in south London, there was a pet shop in our town that were licensed to sell pets. And there was meg, love her, sitting in a cage in the window and looking thoroughly despondent. We went in and asked if the pup was a little girl and she was so the shop owner brought her from her cage for us to look at her and we fell in love. Up to hole in the wall, withdrew the money, went back, paid and brought megs home.

Bless her, she was petrified. Hubs took her onto the grass and boy did she come alive. In and out of his legs, tripping him up. It was lovely to see.

We took her for a check up at our vets on the Monday and showed him her vaccination certificate we'd been given, it showed an address in Wales and our vet said that she came from puppy farm. We were gobsmacked. She's not a pedigree, not that that bothered us but she has grown into looking and definitely acting like one. It was the best shopping trip we ever had. And that was 14 years ago. Can't believe she's 14 now.

We did eventually get new hoover and ironing board.

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

I can't handle these stories! Tearing up over here at work! And that puppy reveal video is adorable. Very sorry to hear about the loss of so many beloved pets, but loving the happy endings.

I always grew up with lots of dogs. I never knew what life without a dog was like as we always had them. Currently, my parents have 6! Three years ago, I graduated college and moved hours away from my hometown to be closer to my now husband and to start a new job. And there was a huge void in my life without the dogs around. I missed them so much. But I knew I didn't have the time, money, or space to get my own dog at that point.

Fast forward to three years later. We bought a house and were about to get married. My husband agreed to get a dog. We hadn't decided on a breed yet, but I randomly looked at a local facebook page for breeders, and there was a litter of chocolate labradors that had been born only hours before. I sent the link to my husband, we did a bit of research, and then we were on board.

When the litter was about a month old, I made the 4 hour trip to see them. I had wanted to wait until they were a bit older and had more personality, but the next month was full of wedding festivities and the honeymoon, so there wasn't time. When I got there, all the pups had just eaten and were fast asleep ...I couldn't get them to wake up! Except for one. Little Rue! She walked right over to me and whimpered. I was sold.

She is a troublemaker, but she is OUR little troublemaker. I can't imagine having another pup. It's crazy how you can grow to love a dog so much in such a short amount of time.

4 week old Rue: (Sorry, the quality is a bit poor)
Rue1 by july070514, on Flickr

14 week old Rue:
Rue2 by july070514, on Flickr

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

I think there should be a warning on this thread.
:'( :'( :'( :'(

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

Paula, just seen your video. Loved it, found myself grinning like a Cheshire cat as well as your children. How you kept that a surprise I don't know, must have been difficult.

You're right Jacqui, there should be a warning. It is nice though reading how we got our lovely furries.

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

I lost my gorgeous Rolo, chocolate Lab, in November 2012, at 14 years of age. I didn't feel I wanted another dog straight away and then some months later arranged trips for last summer which ruled out a puppy. I decided to wait till this summer. Well that resolution lasted till October last year when I suddenly felt desperate for another dog. So I looked on Gumtree (I know, I know...) Anyway there was one last puppy from a litter of Chesapeake Bay Retriever (mum) cross Lab. I went to 'just look' but of course came home with the pup! I'd kept Rolo' s drinking bowl but otherwise had nothing - quick trip to Pets at Home plus a lot of make do for now. The first 3 or 4 weeks were very demanding and I know I sometimes thought I'd made a mistake - I longed for Rolo back. But somehow I gradually sstarted to love my little Molly and now she's a year old, she's my devoted companion, a beautiful natured dog, and I love her to bits.

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

Here is my saga.

In January 2014 a pipe burst in the loft of our house, it flooded the whole place & made it virtualy uninhabitable. The only room that survived reletivly unscathed was the "master" bedroom, eg the wife & mines. Obviously we couldnt all live in there (2 kids) so my in-laws took my family in & I stayed in the house to look after the dog & cat while the insurance company found us somewhere to stay while repairs wher underway..
My dog was a 13 year old patterdale terrier (look it up, they are mad) called Spike.
A couple of weeks later I came home & saw that Spike wasnt his usual mental self. As the night went on he got more & more lathargic. So I took him to the vets, they kept him in over the weekend & phoned me on monday to say he had perked up & could come home.
I took him home only to have him crash again, so back to the vets.
Turned out he had pancriatic cancer & was in unbelievable pain. They could'nt operated as it was so far gone. So I took the decision to have him put out of pain, I was with him when he went, heartbreaking but im glad I did it.
Insurance finaly came through & got us a rental house while mine was being repaired, unfortunatly No Dogs so I had to wait 7 more months.

Done a lot of research & decided a lab was the next dog for us, was set on a choccy but came across an advert on http://www.champdogs.co.uk/ for a litter of 12 pure black pups.
Rang up the breeder, had a good long chat, then went to see the pups (only 4 dogs not been claimed). The lady got the four dogs in question out, I was determined to be proffesional & aloof, but I picked up one of them who looked me straight in the eye then nuzzled my neck. Decision made. I paid a deposit, then went back a few days later & picked him up.
Welcome to your new home Bouncer.

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

I had not really been around dogs as a child growing up apart from my aunties Rottweilers and my god fathers St Bernard. My mum hated dogs. My husband is the opposite....he grew up with a golden retriever x lab and adored her. I met my husband when my daughter was 5. From day 1 of us meeting, he always spoke about Cindy and how much he loved having her and how much my daughter would love it. I always said no as 1. I had limited experience around dogs and 2. We both worked more than full time hours. Fast forward 10 years, I was in a car accident and had spinal injuries so had to reduce my hours working and change my lifestyle (used to love disappearing for a day on our motorbikes, played football and was very sporty). After a few years my injuries were manageable (most of the time) and hubby kept saying about getting a dog. Still I said no until my neighbour popped in with his mums black lab.......I fell in love with him and decided that I needed to do some reading. After a few months of reading, I arranged to go and see a few litters, just to look though! Yeah, right.....the first litter we met several yellow and red labs and had lots of cuddles. Most of them rushed up to us except 2.....one was Harley. As soon as I held her she cuddled into my neck and fell asleep. I was in love so hubby ended up going to find a cashpoint whilst I stayed cuddling her. Two weeks later we brought her home and she has brightened my life so much in so many ways. I wish I had given in sooner!

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

Always had pups growing up. Never remember being without one until June 2013 when our sweet boxer mix Annika became ill suddenly and had to be put down. I'd been through a couple years of loss already. My brother and mother had passed away in less than a year of each other, my oldest child moved some 2000 miles from home to California, my youngest went off to college. I moved from my home of 30 years here to be in my OH territory, only to then in less than a year find myself alone here when he had to take work away from home again. I swore with the pain of losing so much and so many, I wouldn't willingly expose myself to it again. But I am a dog person. Plain and simple. I don't feel my house is a home without one. I have always wanted a lab and set about convincing OH. He pretended to balk, but didn't put up much of a fight.
I was quite determined that it was to be a yellow girl named Sadie. Until I laid eyes on the only remaining black boy. He was sweet and spunky all at the same time and something just told me he was the one! Maybe, because he was the only one! The breeder said "he's the best of the litter" which surely must have been a sales pitch. But it wasn't! He is fabulous, my best friend, my sweet boy and I cannot imagine what I did here without him!
My daughter was listening to my rantings about our recent unpleasant experience at puppy class and commented that the trainer must have been an idiot to ever try to intervene between Edsel and I. "You love that pup more than anyone!" I didn't disagree.

Lori

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

We lost our 11 year old black male Max to lung cancer in December last year and we were truly devastated, we knew we were on borrowed time with our older black lab x girl Lizzie as she was bad with arthritis and two years older than Max. Surprisingly she lasted 6 months after we lost Max, and we cherished every second of every day and spoiled her rotten. We had known max was ill after having a cough and being on meds for months an xray revealed a huge tumour in his lung. We definitely cherished the time we had with him too.

We had to have Max PTS as his lung stopped functioning. We took Liz to the vets and he told us we needed to make the decision v soon, so we took her home and decided to take her back the next day. She, however, had other ideas and decided she wasn't going back to the vets, and she died peacefully at hime with us.

We too said we wouldn't have any more for at least a year.....after just 2 weeks we could bear it no longer, and we found a breeder from the pedigree lines we wanted who was advertising a lutter of pups ready a week later. We expected none to be left, but when i texted her she said there were just two left. We made arrangements to go straightaway, we were in the car on our way with the deposits before she sent us her address!! Our 22 year old sons were as excited as us! We spent the 40 minute drive thinking of names, which ranged from Steve and Dave lol, to Zeus and Thor, which OH said there was no way he was shouting on the field where everyone walks their dogs, once we saw the two tiny bundles, we settled on Jack and Barney.

They are an absolute dream and we haven't regretted the decision for a second.

We still miss our other two terribly, but our two boys have certainly helped to fill the huge gap left in our home that had become quiet, tidy, clean and BORING! It now looks like it's been hit by "hurricane labrador" but i love it ;D

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

[quote author=Looby Lou link=topic=7850.msg110129#msg110129 date=1410895081]
We lost our 11 year old black male Max to lung cancer in December last year and we were truly devastated, we knew we were on borrowed time with our older black lab x girl Lizzie as she was bad with arthritis and two years older than Max. Surprisingly she lasted 6 months after we lost Max, and we cherished every second of every day and spoiled her rotten. We had known max was ill after having a cough and being on meds for months an xray revealed a huge tumour in his lung. We definitely cherished the time we had with him too.

We had to have Max PTS as his lung stopped functioning. We took Liz to the vets and he told us we needed to make the decision v soon, so we took her home and decided to take her back the next day. She, however, had other ideas and decided she wasn't going back to the vets, and she died peacefully at hime with us.

We too said we wouldn't have any more for at least a year.....after just 2 weeks we could bear it no longer, and we found a breeder from the pedigree lines we wanted who was advertising a lutter of pups ready a week later. We expected none to be left, but when i texted her she said there were just two left. We made arrangements to go straightaway, we were in the car on our way with the deposits before she sent us her address!! Our 22 year old sons were as excited as us! We spent the 40 minute drive thinking of names, which ranged from Steve and Dave lol, to Zeus and Thor, which OH said there was no way he was shouting on the field where everyone walks their dogs, once we saw the two tiny bundles, we settled on Jack and Barney.

They are an absolute dream and we haven't regretted the decision for a second.

We still miss our other two terribly, but our two boys have certainly helped to fill the huge gap left in our home that had become quiet, tidy, clean and BORING! It now looks like it's been hit by "hurricane labrador" but i love it ;D
[/quote]

What a tough year! Thankfully you have many years to look forward to with the new boys.

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

We lost Cocoa at the age of 12 years 4 months and cried buckets. We agreed that, after 30 years of marriage and a lifetime of dogs, we wouldn't want to go through it again. As the months went by we both realised that a house without a dog is too quiet and orderly, and that we both missed having a dog around. We lasted two years before we both agreed to start looking for a puppy.

After many phone calls we found a litter about 100 miles away that had what we wanted : a working line yellow bitch from a good breeder. Playing with the puppies we both homed in on the same one, a nicely coloured bitch with a slightly knockabout manner and good curiosity. We visited the litter twice more to see them develop and agreed that we'd made a good choice.

The hard bit was finding a name. We spent weeks trying out names and eventually settled on Holly on the journey to collect her. She was our Christmas present to ourselves, so the seasonal name seemed right.

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

Shalt lovely stories, a joy to read! I wrote in do much detail already that I am sure you have all read it, so I won't repeat myself.

 

Re: feeling nostalgic... how did you and your puppy end up together?

Oh, I am loving loving LOVING all these wonderful stories!!!!