The last of the list. We are not in a huge hurry to work on the dog yard. Our current fencing is 5 feet and will hold the pup while it’s small, so we figure we can work on this over the course of the next 8 months.

The only thing that really needs to get done in the next two weeks is the crate door that will be for under our bed.

We are ready!

I have been pretty quiet in the last few weeks about our potential puppy, but I can confirm we have put a deposit down on one. The litter is about 6 weeks old now. It is a litter of 8 and according to our breeder, our puppy will be one out of 3 girls. She’s been awesome at answering questions, and she’s been sending weekly photos of the litter.

I dont feel comfortable posting pictures of the litter yet, and probably wont until our puppy is confirmed and it is cleared thru our breeder. We are waiting to hear back about her protocol for pickup when flying in on an airplane. I’ve been researching airlines and what carriers can work under the seat, and what is required to bring a dog on a plane. So much effort for a little puppy! But we know it will be worth it.

We have an appointment to interview a vet we want to use. His name is Dr. Robert Atton of Felton Veterinary Hospital. He’s been a local vet for many years and I know first hand he has a few Swissy clients. Brian has an appointment on Monday to just sit and ask him questions, just to make sure he will be a willing partner and we jive with his practices.

It’s funny… Brian made a funny comment about it when he wrote to tell me he made the appointment. Here’s what he wrote:

“I called. The lady I talked to was surprised by such an appointment before we even have the pup. But, she’s going to talk to the doc and get back to us with a time.

We follow all this good advice, and yet it seems everywhere we go people don’t do what we’re doing at all…

Le sigh.“

It’s true. Every thing we have done, has seemed to be judged in excess by other people. Honestly, through this whole process we have been trying to do the right thing. We have tried to research, we have tried to be discriminate, we have tried to do right by this future family member. The first breeder I ever talked to, Maria Jenson.. she said something to me in that first email that I will never forget.

She said: “You get the kind of dog you deserve.”

What kind of dog, do WE deserve do you suppose?

1) Not a perfect one. – We are not perfect, so we don’t deserve a perfect dog.
2) A loving dog maybe? – Yes. We have done all of this searching in Love.
3)A dog with a sense of humor? – MOST DEFINITELY.
4) A healthy dog? –I would hope so.
5) A persistent.. maybe slightly obsessive dog? Uh oh..No.. um. Yes? Maybe? *she says meekly*

Other than that.. I cannot say. Except… we are so excited to finally meet this pup, whoever she may be.

We are finally at the point where we can do actual puppy preparation! We had decided from the beginning that the best place to set up the long term puppy confinement space would be under the TV in the living room. But before we could we needed to move some outlets. Also, because of the outlet location, we had all of our media center wires exposed and those needed to be stowed away so the pup isn’t inspired to electrocute itself.

So this weekend, brian took all of Sunday to do the electrical work. He dismantled the media center and turned off the power. It required working under the house and drilling thru our floor on the other side of the wall, but finally he was able to mount the outlets inside the cabinetry itself.

Once outlets were installed, it was just a matter of slowly putting everything back together in a way that was organized and could fit inside the cabinet.

He had made a door for the cabinet awhile back but had never put it on. He did that, and then got our old baby gate fencing we use to have around the wood stove when the kids were babies. Voila! The perfect Puppy Pen!

The kids thought it was fun too. Today its a fort. Hopefully in 3 weeks, it will be a new home.

My first copy of the SENNtinel.

We are getting down to the wire with the List. Brian liked how this worked so much, he decided to make a permanent chalkboard so we can write notes and make other lists for things that need to be done around the house.

The biggest item on our original List by far… was cleaning out the Guest Room. Over the past year, it has been the dumping ground for everything under the sun and if people wanted to stay there, they’d have to sleep next to crates upon crated, stacked chairs and tubs of all sorts of CRAP.

It’s been a huge monkey on Brian’s back and something he’s been wanting to address for a long time. So we are finally doing it!

Look at all this stuff. This was just what was piled in the closet and the overflow into the room.

And that’s not all! Here’s most of what was piled onto the futon and near the bed. This is all stuff we plan on giving away or selling. Most of it is going to Freecycle or craigslist.. but there are boxes and boxes of old kid’s clothes that we are going to try to turn in to our local second hand store.

Thinning down feels great! As you can tell from Brian’s face here:

It will feel awesome to have our guest room back, and not feel embarrassed when friends want to come and stay. Most importantly, it’s one more thing that allows us more time to devote to our new addition and not feel like we have other responsibilities hanging over our head. We are so close now… we can TASTE it.

“Nambian Elephant Dusting” by Eric Wilson

I had a lot of good support from my friends over the last few days and it has been great! So i got up, dusted my self off and started the whole process over again. I’m taking an advisor’s advice and casting a wider net this time around, instead of focusing on just one semi-local breeder. I’m not sure how this is going to “look” to them however. It might look flaky and it might appear we lack commitment. But considering all the factors involved, and considering I haven’t really found anybody who has committed to my family? I think it’s only fair to keep open until it is absolutely apparent that I have found our “breeder match.” We may end up with one that we’ve already started a relationship with.. or we may not. I’m open either way.

I emailed a breeder that the last one recommended, but the kennel hasn’t returned my email. This wouldn’t phase me but I’ve actually emailed an application to this one before and they didn’t return my email then either. I might give them a call over the weekend just to satisfy my curiosity.

In the meantime, I’ve been given a few other recommendations from some friends and I have already started the process by emails and phone conversations. It looks promising! My wider net includes a representative from three different regions of America: East Coast, Midwest and West Coast. I’ve made initial contact with all three: two with plans to follow up on the phone. The third I talked to this morning. I was initially really intimated by this one as the Kennel is one of the older ones in America, but it turned out great! Almost too easy in a way. They have a litter on the ground and have three girls who are still available. They are going to send pictures on Monday with the promise of a follow up conversation. I don’t know enough about their dogs yet, and as pick up would be about three weeks away I worry that the breeder wont know my family well enough by then. It might be difficult to judge if one of these girls would good for us, and I would hate to think we were a “last resort” couple for the litter. Then again, this breeder has been doing it for sooo long.. maybe they just KNOW. Your guess is as good as mine.

This process is still such a mystery. Sometimes I just want to shake my head an wonder how I got wrapped up in all this.

I’m a sad little puppy today. I got an email from the breeder letting me know there wasn’t going to be a puppy for us from the current breeding. There were a lot of show homes in the bunch and understandably, breeders want to place their puppies in homes where their dogs are going to get exposure and the kennel’s name gets out there.

I completely understand, but it doesn’t take away from my disappointment. We had really gotten excited by the idea we might be getting a puppy in July. This was going to be the last breeding this year for this particular kennel so I have a choice now: Do I wait until the next opportunity with this particular breeder? (Who I genuinely like but he/she may or may not be breeding for quite awhile) or do I start over and try to forge a new relationship and get on another wait list?

I’m not sure what the best thing to do is. All I do know is there will be no pitter patter of little paws this July and who knows when the stork will come. Sadness…

Today was Mother’s Day. I hope all you mothers out there had a great day of rest. I was pretty happy. I woke up to breakfast in bed and then presents on the couch. And what did my kids and husband get me for Mother’s Day you ask? Jewelry? A spa treatment? Nooo. No, my family knows EXACTLY how to get to my heart. They got me dog paraphernalia: leash, toys and dog treats. Lots of little presents to get me excited for that day in the future when we can bring our puppy home.

Speaking of puppies.. remember that waiting list we are on? The pups were born by c-section on Wednesday. 6 boys and 5 girls. Apparently all is going well and the mom dog is doing great. I am dying to see pictures but the breeder hasn’t posted any yet. I can’t wait to see them!

This was the 2nd weekend we worked on the Loft. Brian is quite crafty and he was able to get all of the construction and most of the painting done in record time.

So why did we need to build a loft in the first place? Well, when the both kids were old enough, Brian and I moved into the smaller second bedroom and gave the larger room to them. It really isn’t a full sized room; more like an alcove. With the bed on the floor, we were only able to fit it and one dresser drawer. We had moved Brian’s drawers out into the laundry room and it was getting pretty tiresome for him to have to walk to the other side of the house every time he wanted a change of clothes. But with the new loft, we can fit the drawers back in the room!

Gavin wants to show you the BEST part!!! We also have a perfect space underneath for a dog crate. Brian made sure the space was the right specifications that we can put a Great Dane size wire dog crate underneath, so our Swissy can sleep in our room. The opening is narrow.. so we are going to have to build a custom door for the pup.

But look! It’s a perfect den. It’s also a perfect play space for the kids but they are on full alert that they can only play there until we actually get a dog. Then, its for dogs only…