And They Called It Puppy Love...

AARP Magazine says that one of the things that retired people should do for good health is to have a pet. 

After looking around for French Bulldogs and finding them very expensive, we decided to just look for a small dog from a good breeder.   We figured that by June we should have one.  Friday, we went to two shelters, but didn't find anything.  There were plenty of big dogs pleading with us to take them  home, but they just weren't what we were looking for.  

Well, God works in mysterious ways.  It was so nice today we decided to go to the beach--and so did half of Wilmington.  After sitting in a traffic jam forever, we decided to bag the beach and do something else.   I told Tony that before we went home, I would like to do one dog hunt related activity.  We ended up at Petco, where a pet adoption was going on. 

Unfortunately, only large dogs were available there too, but I did see exactly the kind of dog I wanted.  A customer was carrying the cutest little black and white dog around with her.  It was a 10  week old Shih Tzu puppy, named Dexter.   Dexter was calm, cute, well behaved and I didn't so much as have a sniffle while I was holding him.  We talked to the young lady who owned him and she gave us her breeder's name--Lori Hopper.    

I called Lori when we got home and found that she had 9 dogs available and we could see them today.  15 minutes later, I was holding our new baby, Dixie.  I'm still having trouble posting pictures on the blog, so go to Lori's website....www.lorispups.com and take a look.  Dixie is currently # 5 on the breeder blog, but Lori was going to take her picture down soon since she is no longer available.  Dog #3, looks a bit like Dixie.  She is white with gold patches on her back and has a stripe on her tail.    We should have her right after we get back from Cleveland in March. 

Lori has 12 dogs and currently 11 puppies (two were sold before we got there) and she was a wealth of knowledge about the breed.  Needless to say, I took 50 pictures of Dixie and some of her brothers and sisters and can't wait until she gets home.

Shih Tzu dogs have a life span of 14 to 18 years, so to say that Dixie is our last dog is a statement in itself.   She was born on January 6 at 3:14 p.m., and weighed 5.45 ounces.  Her mother is Wildwood's Bai-Daihya Sing Fantasy and her father is Lowrider Rex of the City.   Dixie's official name is:  Wildwood's Lowrider Dixie Arian Sing Sierra--which makes her not only a member of her "official" family, but connects her to Jack and us with the name of Sierra (the letter S in the aviation alphabet, which we use for Swegle)...Jack was Lierlines Jack Samson (his father) Sierra.   

So here we go again...parents to a puppy.  It will not fill the void of children, but it will make us smile.