Our sweet English Springer Spaniel, Jasmine, passed away last June from liver failure, leaving a hole in Daddy's heart. She was a good dog, a loyal companion, always eager to please.
After grieving, Daddy decided the best way to fill this hole in his heart was to get a new hunting companion, but there is only one kind of dog worth having in his mind.
We immediately began the search for a springer breeder in Arizona. Springers are typically Midwestern dogs, where pheasant hunting abounds, but there were a few advertised in Arizona. Knowing Conan would be arriving soon, I insisted we wait at least until spring before getting a new puppy. Daddy reluctantly acquiesced. We put our name on the waiting list for a spring puppy.
A little over a month ago, a friend of mine volunteered for a couple of dog rescues--one of which was a springer rescue. Thinking it was a long shot, I put our name on a list there as well, specifying that we were only interested in puppies. I never received a reply.
On Tuesday, I was randomly checking my email at 3 am when I ran across a message from the springer rescue. Apparently my email had gone into her spam folder and she had just randomly checked it. Just that morning a puppy had come into the rescue. She was. 12 week old, AKC liver and white springer, were we interested? It was a little sooner than anticipated, but...
YES!!!
It was about all I could do not to wake up Daddy and tell him the good news. As it was, I kept whispering, "
Are you awake?" and "
Puppy!" over and over again, hoping he'd wake up.
The next morning we began the official adoption process. Gracie was surrendered to the rescue because of suspected "springer rage syndrome"...she bites. She's a puppy! The previous owners' ignorance of puppy behavior is our gain. The truly remarkable thing was Gracie had come from the original breeder we'd selected...just $450 cheaper!
Daddy brought her home last night. She looks remarkably like Jasmine as a puppy. Daddy immediately fell in love. So far we've seen nothing but typical puppy behavior, although her bark is quite gremlin-like.
So now I have a 4 month old baby and a 3 month old puppy.
I must be crazy.
