So You Want a Puppy.....

I wrote this about three months ago and never published it. I looked back at it and thought this was a good time to share, it being close to the holidays, and many people getting dogs for Christmas. At the end, I updated it so you could see where she is today. I hope you enjoy it.

Two and a half years ago, we purchased an eight week old Golden Retriever; she was a cute as could be. It was at about the same time that my wife started getting ill, but the doctors couldn’t seem to identify exactly what she was dealing with, so I ended up being with the little puppy all the time as my wife felt ill. Biscuit attached to me like a shadow, and she became “my dog.” 

For the last six months, my wife has been battling cancer and wanted a puppy, so that she could raise it to be “hers.” She goes on the internet and finds a cute female that has been taken away from the owners as they couldn’t afford what it took to raise 5 puppies.

So, we rescued a puppy. Not that we needed another animal as we already had a Golden Retriever, an outside/inside cat, and a pair of swans with four additional cygnets on our stocked pond. As you can tell, we have quite a menagerie.

She wanted to do the right thing and rescue a puppy so after finally convincing me she would help take care of the puppy, I agreed. She looked at many rescue shelters in the area and finally saw a beautiful female she fell in love with that was three months old.

Now this isn’t your normal “Heinz 57” mutt. We have raised Golden Retrievers for over 35 years and love the breed. We know what to expect with a golden retriever puppy. She of course picked out a dog neither of us has ever raised before, so we have no experience with this breed.

So, we did our homework on the internet and found what we were in for with this breed. Did I mention, the breed is a Saint Bernard? Yes, the as an adult, up to 200 pounds of dog, a female Saint Bernard. We thought we were crazy before, but now this will certify that we are, without a doubt, certifiably crazy.

We arranged to pick her up in the middle of Absolutely Nowhere, Georgia, which is about 45 minutes from our home. The owner of the rescue has been saving dogs from euthanasia for over 30 years.

We called and let her know we were on our way and thanks to my trusty GPS, we found her place. As we get out of our car, a little pipsqueak mutt about the size of a football, starts barking at us as she is checking us out and continues until the owner shouts out to us that she’s drying the puppy and will be right out.

Out the owner comes with a clothes basket full of dog. Adorable and sweet and scared about what is happening. She’s in a basket and we don’t let the puppy on the ground as she still needs the rest of her shots. We were impressed as being a dog owner, is the right way to do it as she hasn’t had all her shots yet. We were impressed.

After our greeting this gorgeous 3 month old female Saint Bernard we named Graci her weight was 22 pounds. As my wife went to get sign all the papers and pay for our new pup, I could see Graci was hot, as it does in August in Georgia, so I thought putting her in the backseat and blasting the air conditioning.                                                           

In that we already have a large dog, I already have a protective cover for the back seat, it’s like a dog hammock, in the back seat. Within 30 seconds of being placed there, she winds up and pees in the car. We’re not talking short little puppy pee, we’re talking St. Bernard pee. There was a lake in my back seat immediately. Actually we picked her up just after she had been bathed, so it’s not a real surprise as most pups drink the bath water as the bath is being filled. Nice way to greet your new owners.

So, as it didn’t take long to christen the car, we quickly cleaned it up without any real hassle. I am so glad I had that cover on the back seat. We got it clean and took an old blanket out of the trunk and placed it over the cover, so she didn’t have to sit in the wet cover. Less than 30 seconds later, she christened the back seat with pooping on the blanket. All I could think of was “What have we gotten ourselves into?” A large Peeing Pooping Machine?

So this was our introduction to our new Saint Bernard. We cleaned it up and got another blanket from the rescue lady and now we were waiting for her to vomit, as it was the only thing she hadn’t done yet to the backseat of my car. Fortunately, she didn’t.

Now, we were finally on our way to the vet to have her checked out. She passed with flying colors. We then went to one of the national pet warehouses and picked up puppy food and puppy treats and of course a toy. Between what we bought for the puppy and the dog food for our retriever, I walked out over a hundred dollars lighter.

Finally, we made it home. She had been exposed to a lot in the past 3 hours and we were glad to finally get her home. We get her out of the car onto the cool cement of the garage and she was like a soft cuddly rock that was glad to lie down and chill.

That soon became a problem as we needed to get her accustomed to our house and surroundings and we don’t normally live in the garage. But that cold cement floor sure felt good. Now what incentive could we give her to walk around? Those puppy treats, or course.

While she liked the treats, she wasn’t going to get off her butt to walk for one. She just wanted to chill. Eventually, we gave up and had to carry her, all 22 pounds of dead weight, into the house. Now on the cool kitchen tiles she became a lump of coal again.

I have actually found an animal lazier than I am and much cuter! Later, we got her outside on the front yard and she proudly did her business where dogs are supposed to do their business. She was running around and having a great time as she became acquainted with her new surroundings.

Our cat (Roy D. Mercer) came home as it was dinner time and you could almost see him look at us and say, “You have to be kidding! Another animal I have to contend with? Let’s not forget I was the first one here and have seniority over all these other animals.” Actually, he could less.

Now it was time to introduce her to our Golden. They went to the normal introduction of smelling butts, a dog ritual that fortunately has not been passed on to humans. The new sisters had a great time as they got to know each other. Our Golden is bigger now, but in a few months she will be the smaller of the two.

I wrote the above on the day we got Graci. Today is over 3 months later and Graci is now six months old and larger than our Golden (Biscuit). Biscuit has, amazingly, taught Graci the rules of the house. Not to leave my office unless invited. Sitting at the base of the stairs until I get to the top and say it’s OK to come up the stairs, getting into the bath tub for a bath, etc. I teach Graci and Biscuit helps enforce it. She was house trained in about a week.

The two get along great, they wrestle and run together or after each other. If you stare consistantly at Graci, you can actually see her grow.  She is going to be a very large dog.  We are so glad that we rescued her and have added the Saint Bernard to our list of special dogs. 

                                             

My wife is also officially in remission of her cancer, although she still must have chemo every 2-3 weeks. She’s even gone back to work part time and very glad to be back after the past 6 months of chemo every other week. She has fought hard and kept a great attitude. Graci has also helped her in that she can share her “mothering instincts” again and get an escape from the obvious.

Puppies have amazing healing ability and 100% escape ability. Even if it’s for a short time, it’s nice. Have a safe and wonderful holiday season and look for more from Notes by Blue in 2012.

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