In just over a week we will be getting a new puppy.  We’re already decided her name will be Rosie though we went through a time thinking her name would be Ruby.  We also went through a time where not only would she have a different name, she’d also be a different breed.  You see, just after the New year, which was more than 1/2 a year ago, my middle daughter, Kate, who was then 12 decided that she wanted a new puppy.  The breed she had set her eye on was a Pembroke Welsh Corgi.  Once she’d made her decision, our entire  house was covered with pictures of Corgi pups.  These were her way of communicating just how very much she wanted a Corgi.  They were placed as constant reminders so that when i opened the fridge, put on my shoes, brushed my hair in the mirror, opened my bedroom door, did just about anything around the house i’d see a picture of a Corgi and be reminded of how much Kate wanted a Corgi.  Truth is though that what she really wanted was a puppy of nearly any breed though Corgis were exceptionally cute to her.

We didn’t need a puppy or any new animal in our lives.  We already have 3 dogs, 2 cats, 3 horses and 2 pigs.  And both my husband and i have full time jobs.  His job requires frequent travel and a really long commute.  We also have 2 other children besides Kate, the one leading the charge on the new puppy.  Even so, we said yes.  We said yes to a puppy because I adore dogs.  My husband really likes dogs AND he really enjoys making our girls happy.  The real reason we’re getting a new puppy is because Kate started the conversation and dogs make me happy.  As a young girl, i dreamed of owning 5 dogs all of different breeds.  The one thing these dream dogs had in common was their large size.  Now, one of our 3 current dogs is not at all large.  He’s a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Chester.  Chester is small especially when compared to our other 2 dogs who are a black lab and a Golden Retriever.  A Corgi would have been another small dog, but we were all totally on board with another small-in-comparison-to-our-other-dogs standards.  So my husband and I said yes and began the search for the Corgi.  On that journey, i learned that Corgis are very popular and popularity brings problems.  Funny, because that seems to be the case for middle school kids as well as breeds of dogs. Even so, we found a Corgi breeder that I respected as she she did all the right things.  She bred only a few litters a year, she had the parents screened for health issues, she’d take a puppy back if ever the pup was no longer wanted by the new family, and she charged a reasonable price for her puppies.  After many conversations by phone and email, our Corgi pup dreams were not to be.  Turns out this breeder had a long waiting list for pups and our desired timeline didn’t match hers.  She was thinking more along the lines of a year from now and we (back in January) were thinking of a new family addition in the summer.  Honestly, i was also getting the clear vibe that my family wasn’t really good enough for her puppies and was concerned that her timeline was a way of putting us off long enough that we’d look elsewhere.  I was worried about how I’d tell our family that we now needed to wait more than a year for a puppy.

Pretty much the exact same day when it was clear to me that we’d have a much longer than anticipated wait for a Corgi, my husband came home from work and mentioned his boss’ dog just had puppies.  They were Goldendoodles and would be available right around early July which is exactly when we’d already cancelled our family vacation to help our new pup transition to our family.  It became perfectly clear that this was a case of my long-held belief that ‘everything happens for reason’.  Time to move to Puppy Plan B.  We held a family meeting about the puppy situation.  Once everyone looked up Goldendoodle pictures and read about their temperaments, we were hooked.  We contacted my husband’s boss’ wife and let her know we were interested.    She sent us several pictures and told us that 4 of the 7 pups were still available.  Oh my!  how do you choose from 4 adorable, female  puppies of the same breed on pictures alone?  We chose the one with the darkest coat.  She was almost red and, based on videos, looked like she had a spunky personality, always trying to get out of her enclosure and explore.  Given the red in her coat, we all thought Ruby would be her name.  We even bought a name tag with ‘Ruby’ on it so that we’d be prepared for her arrival.  In the past week since choosing Ruby, we’ve all struggled with the name and realized that ‘Rosie’ comes more naturally to all of us.  So, Rosie it is.  She’s the Goldendoodle who was supposed to be a Corgi and a Rosie who was supposed to be Ruby.  And this new puppy adventure all started with Corgi pictures posted everywhere around our home by a very committed, persistent child who is now 13.  The child of a veterinarian whose first love was dogs and whose life always has room for one more canine family member.