Not so graceful...

In just one week's time, Abbie has

1. choked on soft treat,

2. choked on raw hide, and

3. fell off Mark’s gear bag hitting her head on the concrete floor.

I think we have identified the clumsy one.  We're much more careful now about.......everything.

The Search

Mark and I began the search for our new Chihuahua puppies in early December.  We reviewed a ton of ads, mostly online.  By the time we finished the searched, I had logged about 40 ads.  We were prepared to drive as far as Louisville, Knoxville, or Chattanooga, but were fortunate to find some folks nearby. 

We had planned for a long time to get a brother/sister pair. We began to get nervous, though, about all the extra adventures a boy dog might bring for us.  Marking things around the house, and seeing things we don’t want to see…... Ewwwww. So the search was for 2 sisters.  Female Chihuahuas, it turns out, were in high demand this year.  So it was difficult to find one, let alone two, female pups. 

We picked a Saturday to start visiting puppies.  To make sure we didn’t get caught up by the first cute pups we met, we planned 4-5 visits that day.  We started with a guy in Lafayette, 2 hours NE of Nashville.  He only had 2 males, but we thought he’d be a good contact.  No one else had returned my calls yet, so we headed south towards the highway through Hartsville, and hoped to hear from someone before we got home.  When we had nearly reached the highway, one of the Hartsville ladies called.  She had a litter that will be ready early January, and was in the process of breeding some of her other females.  So we turned around for a 45 minute drive back to Hartsville.  We had almost reached Hartsville when Gloria called.  She has two female pups from her pets, Bee-Bee and Suzie.  Super! The 45 minutes drive back to Hartsville would get us a two-for-one visit. 

The first lady was kind enough to meet us in town so we could follow her home.  While she was very nice and seemed to care about her dogs, the place was very chaotic.  Baby was screaming, breeding dogs were barking, small cramped house…everything was loud and right on top of each other.

Following the historic tour markers along the battlefield, we made our way to the other side of Hartsville.  Gloria’s donkey, Eeore, greeted us, and her husband led us into the house.  What a different atmosphere than the previous home!  It was warm, quiet, clean…. very comfortable.  The puppies were adorable, and we took to each other immediately.  We were very impressed by the parents’ demeanors, but were a bit disappointed at some of the parents’ physical features.  Suzie as a longer nose than we’d been hoping for, and neither had the extreme applehead we like. Despite our shallow concerns, we fell in love with the pups.

            To be continued…….