# Chateau de la Tobler

## Wednesday, February 13, 2008

### Puppy Love

G'Day to all who read this.
Most if not all of you know that right before Christmas Caren and I bought a puppy outside our local Walmart. We named her Dora. Since she was bought outside a store and not inside the store, she is a mutt of sorts and we, at least in that respect, knew this much about her. We were told she would be a medium sized dog who would grow to be less then 30 lbs. Well, as of last Sunday, 10 Feb., she was 22 lbs and still growing. As she was still growing and had all the energy of a puppy, she was becoming over-powering for Adam, Kip, and Caren, who had to chase her every time she needed to be put outside. Dora loved to play with Adam, who in turn loved to play with her. This meant that Adam kept opening the back door to let her in even if she was not allowed inside at the time. She also still had her puppy teeth and was knawing at anything and everything she could. In her playing she would bite, although lightly, those that she was playing with. This includes Adam, Caren, Kip and myself. We kept trying to teach her that biting, even in this playful way, was not allowed. The biting scared Kip and started to scare Adam a few days ago. We knew that since she was still growing and we did not have the time to put into her training to become the adult dog we could handle, that we would have to give her up. This, of course would devastate our boys, even though they were starting to get scared of her. they still liked the idea of a puppy. As of today, Wednesday 13 Feb., Dora was taken into a lovely animal shelter where we hope another more suitable family will adopt her.
In a related train of thought we are still on the income of 'poot college student' wages. With 2 kids and minimal income we are anticipating a nice sum of 'earned income credit' from the government. With my father-in-law being willing and able to do our tax return forms for us we have our anticipated date of when to expect 'our' money from the government. With a portion of this money, Caren and I have desided to look again for a puppy to replace Dora. we already have everything for a puppy that we thought would be small. All we needed was the dog.
Last Monday, 11 Feb., our family decided to visit a mall for 2 main reasons. The Choco cat items at teh Sanrio store were on clearance, Caren loves that caracter from Hello Kitty, and to look in their pet store for possible candidates of puppies. All was going well, Caren had to hold back on several item because they were at such low prices. even low prices are still prices and money from our pockets. (Side note: I'm glad Caren can hold back when she needs to.) After this trip we made our way to the pet store. We looked quickly at the prices of the puppies. They had a wide selection and even had several puppies on sale. I asked the woman behind the counter if she could answer some questions about the puppies for me. It turned out that I asked the manager of the store. She came over and I asked if a certain awake puppy was the Silky Terrier from the price tag. She confirmed this and asked if we wanted to play with the puppy. Of course Caren and I knew our boys would love this even if we don't buy this puppy. As we talked with the manager we were able to discover that this puppy would get to be 12 lbs if she was lucky. Most likely she would grow to be 10 lbs. She had a sturdier build then other small dogs and whould therefore be able to handle the play from our boys. By the end of 30 minutes Caren and I were in love with this little dog. We did buy her and brought her home with us. We have decided to call her Tinkerbell or Tink for short. Adam loves her as she is willing to sit in his lap.
Now you all might have noticed that Dora was still home when we brought Tink home. Dora was extremely currious about this new dog. They sniffed each other but Dora is 3-4 times Tink's size. Tink even growled at Dora yesterday. So Dora stayed outside whiile Tink stayed inside. As you know from above we gave Dora away today. Now Tink and our boys can learn how to play with each other without a massive Dora demanding their attention.
The End - SKT
P.S. Pictures will follow if I remember to bring the camera with me to school.

<< Home