Enjoying Life's Journey: Precious Joins Our Family

In 2004, I lost my two dearest friends—my dogs, Baby and Carmen.

I missed them terribly!

I held their memory in my heart, but the hurt was unbelievable.

In 2007, I couldn’t stand not having a pet, so I tried to ease the hurt with an adorable Polish Dwarf rabbit that I named Suzie. She was the cutest thing! She lived in the house during cold weather and outside when it was warm enough. She eventually

grew big enough to run free in the backyard. It was so much fun watching her hop at lightning speed all around the yard. It was even okay when she ate a massive number of the flowers I planted throughout the flowerbeds. What wasn’t okay was she wouldn’t cuddle or sit in my lap like a dog…because she wasn’t a dog. She couldn’t fill my dog void because she was a rabbit. I kept her a year; then she was adopted by a family in Frisco who had another rabbit and a 5 year old boy. She is now a house rabbit and perfectly content.

Finally, last month, in September 2008, I could stand it no longer. I started checking the internet and the newspaper for puppies. It was NOT a casual, once-in-a-while glance. It was an all-consuming search! One Sunday morning just before we left for church, Maxey checked the classified section of the Amarillo Globe News and saw a photo of three of the cutest little puppies ever. Two were white and one was multicolored brown. I can’t remember if he told me about them before church or after, but I do remember that as soon as I saw their picture I loved them. The ad said that there was one female and two males.

As soon as we finished lunch, Maxey sneaked off and called the number in the paper. I could hear him talking to someone, but I didn’t know who. He had called to see which one was the little girl. It was the cute little brown one!! All of a sudden, he came to me and just held out the phone without a word. On the other end of the line was the lady who was selling the puppies. I visited with her a little while—getting details on the puppy. It was part Pomeranian and part Poodle. It met all our wishes…tiny, not white or cream, and won’t shed. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, so I thanked her for her time and hung up.

Maxey was just watching me. I asked him what he was thinking. He said, “You could be there by 7pm.” Wow! Things started to happen at whirlwind speed. I called the lady back and asked her if maybe she could meet me in Claude. She asked, “You’re going to drive that far just to look at a puppy?” “No! I’m going to drive that far to GET the puppy! I want her!”

I called Gail and asked her if she wanted to go to Amarillo. She said, “When?” I said, “Now.” I told her about the puppy. She said, “Give me 10 minutes.” And we were on the road! It was CRAZY! But it was one of the best days of my life!!!

I called Kit to tell him the situation and that I was headed toward Amarillo. He said they’d all meet me in Claude for a short visit. It was wonderful that they would do that!! I couldn’t believe how much Foster had grown! It had just been a little over a month since I had seen him. They couldn’t stay very long, but it was great to get to see them. They were eager to see the new puppy, but it came time for them to go before the lady got there. As we said our goodbyes and they drove away, she pulled into the parking lot. Good grief!

When she stepped out of her car holding the puppy, I couldn’t believe how little it was! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a tiny dog! And it was all hair!!! Maxey and I had already decided on the puppy’s name before we even found her. She was to be named “Precious”. And she fit her name perfectly! She weighed 1 pound and was six weeks old. She bounced around like a ping pong ball when she tried to go through the grass. She went backward more than she went forward for the first few days after we got her.

I’ve never seen anything cuter!