Christmas came early... without a crisis councilor!

Well, I did it. I got a puppy. This is not -so much- an out-of-this-world kind of thing for me. In fact, for the last 28 years I have only been without any sort of dog for 6 days back in 2000 when I lost Bandit, my smallest Rottweiler, to cancer in Los Angeles. We still have Dopey Lopey but as I have blogged earlier, he is not really a "performance" dog.

I found myself looking casually (and secretly) on petfinder.com. I asked the Chief Buddy Amato of our own NJ animal cops (an unbelievably great guy if you don't know him of haven't seen him in the Asbury Park Press) for a recomendation letter in the event that I found THE DOG FOR US at one of the shelters or through one of the bazillion rescues in the North East. I glanced at the classifieds a number of times. Not really seeing THE DOG FOR US, I told my friend Christine that the right dog would find us and that I was committed to find a Family-Type dog. My Proposed Pet Requirement List began to read like the "Hurry, Nanny" song in Mary Poppins:

Small young dog required. Must like kids, cats, be thoroughly house trained and like-able. Must be calm, cute and smart.

Note: this description is a serious departure from my past dogs, all of which were over 60 lbs.


Now, I never expected to find love on Facebook. About a week ago, my friend Alicia posted a message about a female, toy poodle mix that needed and immediate home. Well, I thought, Ella has been asking about getting a "french poodle" so it wouldn't hurt to ask. After some back and forth about the puppy and the foster mom Lori (who I had gone to school with but had not yet friended on Facebook) I got to see the puppy. All puppies are cute and looking at her was the clincher. I got on the phone with Lori and made arrangement to "meet" the puppy. She told me her name was Daisy. My aunt lost a mini poodle not long ago named Daisy. Hmm, odd coincidence. I called Lori back the next day and told her that I may just want to take the puppy home if I really liked her and asked would that be ok?

Note: at the this point I have NOT consulted anyone in my family.

I enlisted Accomplice Agent #1 to take the ride with me and had Accomplice Agents #s 2,3,4 and 5 on standby for the expected explosions back at home. Under the guise of shopping, we got the Canine Contraband and raced back home to present Al with his new dog. You see, as with Lopey, I don't do Trial Periods with dogs. Once you claim them, you keep them. Lopey was picked when he was born into my hands. Daisy was mine as soon as I saw Alicia's post.

Al's first response? "That's not my dog."

Well, Al fancies himself a bit tougher than he actually is. In the last 48 hours I have been accused of "hogging the dog," attempting to make her mine and mine alone (apparently by training her) and not being a puppy sharer among other things. When I hand her over to him, he just melts and lets her kiss his face and talks to her in the high squeaky voice. Last night, he played poker on the internet and apparently Daisy was helping... by standing in his lap and blocking the screen with her little skinny body.

So no councilor was involved. The police were not called. No locks were changed. But I DID have to agree to a Vegas (or other debouched location) trip with his brother when he comes to visit this winter.

I think I can suck it up. Daisy is really, really cute!