Scooter's Stories
Having a puppy shipped to you.....
After I posted Puffin's site when
she arrived four years ago, Lucile from Birdwalk Farm was the first person
(and breeder) to email me - and we've been at it ever since. I'd been thinking
of adding another dog to the family for a little better than a year - considered
some options etc.... and, well - here we are. Lucile has been
waiting and watching for a pup that she knew would stay small... I have
a lot of physical and medical problems so we need to keep the bundle
of energy, both puppy and full grown under control - and I have to admit,
it's uncanny how she and Dan can match pup personalities with prospective
owners. But - we still had to cross that hurdle of being some half a seaboard
apart. With the work I do with the NACR and CC I decided that
I wanted know first hand what it was like to have a dog shipped versus the
traditional "go pick out a puppy"- (everyone here around me has called it
the pregnancy and labor - I think I did better with it all than my friends
here) - so the time had come to find out what it's like.
Anywho - it's been probably five
or six months now that Lucile has been working on getting the "right" puppy
hatched down there - and it all really just came together about four weeks
ago when she introduced me to the-then-unnamed Scooter - from there the
rest was rapidlly becoming history as they say. We didn't have a name going
till about two or three weeks ago, and Scooter evolved out of the stories
Lucile was telling me about her antics... (like camping in the food bowl
and being pushed around her crate by her littermate) - Lucile asked me what
I preferred for getting her up here time wise, and I said whatever
was going to be best for the pup and easiest for Lucile and Dan- which was
going to turn out to be this week, either the 28 or 29. The very intimate
part of this is, and Lucile was not tuned into it when she gave me the dates
- yesterday, the 29th, was just a year with my mom dying. Needless
to say as I took Scooter out of her carrier at the airport there were a
few tears running - this time last year I was bidding goodby to one life,
and this year welcoming another one into it. I'd not have made it this last
year without Puffin who still reigns supreme around here, never fear (and
is letting Scooter learn it) - and thought that after she adjusts, both
Puffin and I would do well to have four more little feet pattering around.
Many people think that part of the
wonderful part of getting a puppy is going to the breeder and seeing them
all and choosing one, and coming home with it. Well - yes to be sure, if
the opportunity is there. But, having now experienced both ways, I can say
that both are wonderful each in their own way. I'll never forget seeing the
passel of puppies running all over that gorgeous fall day when we met Puffin.
Nor now will I forget spending the weeks pending Scooter's actual arrival
being greeted with emails of photos letting me watch her grow, telling me
of her antics - in many ways it was a much more intimate way of getting to
know this little bundle of fur well in advance.
So - the solid plans began, and I
just sat on it all till it all happened for real - I wanted her here
safe and sound before everyone started celebrating.... and after yesterday,
getting here safe and sound took on a new meaning.... of the something
like 95 days of summer, the only and I do mean only day that it rained -
and I mean RAINED on the east coast, was the day Scooter was due to fly.
The few days before hand Lucile had given me all of her flight information,
her cargo ids, etc- and with the wonders of the internet now everything
can be tracked down to where the plane is in the sky at any given moment.
Scooter started her journey about 5am in Nashville, and toured via Chicago
- but she was two hours late getting out of Nashville due to the weather
- and therefore they missed her connecting flight in Chicago. I was tracking
her flights on line and knew that it was going to be close even when we
left for the airport - but did not know for real that they had missed connecting
her till the plane she was supposed to be on was on the ground here at Stewart
and offloaded. American got on the horn right away to OHare and Ohare
confirmed that they had her, safe and sound. OHare also has so many animals
going through the facility that they have a staffed animal room, and the
American clerk here assured me that Scooter would be well cared for and
safely make it to the next flight. Thankfully I had also checked to know
that there were two more flights into Stewart from OHare - so she would
be on the next one, but that meant a four and a half hour wait at the airport
for me. She finally touched down at 5:14pm and we had her out by 5:30
and in my arms. After we had gotten home and things settled down I could
do some good checking - and it was very clear that the folks at OHare had
indeed done very well by her. Her carrier had been changed with clean papers,
she had been fed and watered - and truly looked fit as a fiddle if not a
little overwhelmed, when she and I first met our eyes. The folks at Stewart
by the time she arrived were well prepared and waiting for her, and as soon
as the plane was offloaded the clerk was out to get her into the terminal.
They let us use the baggage office which was off the main area, with the
door closed, so that we could get her settled a little bit away from all
the hubbuh and noise. I'll never forget opening the carrier and seeing her
sitting in there, bright eyes, tip of her tongue sticking out, clean and
fluffly (to be honest I was pretty well prepared for a messy puppy, no fault
of hers) - I reached in and she came to my hand, took her out and put her
on a towel on the counter with my arms around her, just letting her sniff
me, and getting her some water. It took about three minutes for her to be
giving me a kiss on my nose. By now the crowd in the terminal had gone on
their way, and we snuggled her into a towel in my arms. Scooter nestled in
like she knew this was where she was supposed to be all along.
We made it out to the car and within
the 45 minute's ride home from the airport had decided that this was ok,
I am her person (sticking like glue from the getgo), not phased by
anything in the least. She napped about ten minutes during the ride home,
but otherwise was just taking everything in. We got home, and came in,
put her down and she just started waddling around like she owned the joint.Within
half an hour she was eating and drinking and exlporing - and not at all
happy about being in the playpen. She also determined that I was not allowed
to be out of sight. In less than 18 hours I have come to hold in
high esteem the Curly Canine Commando training course... all jokes aside,
for 11 weeks she is way ahead of what you would expect for a little one.
And, we had a decent night - she
woke up a few times needed some reassuring but settled again right away...
and made it till about 7am the next morn. We even had a poop outside
(though it was good catching on Ginny's part) - and a pee last night out
there so.... when it was time for bed last night I settled
her in her crate in the bedroom with Puffin and I - she fussed for about
three minutes and then I realized things were very quiet - she was out
cold. Puffin and I soon followed.... we were all snuggled in and no
one would have ever guessed what the day had entailed. She was home.