Jay Talbot’s Ramblings

Ok, last week I told you Cerwyn got sick. After tons of discussion on what to do, talking to the vet, then getting a second opinion from a different vet, we knew what we had to do. Our little Sheltie girl was not going to get better, and life with drugs to help control the effects of what was going on with, and the sheer fact that we don’t have thousands of dollars to spend for proper diagnoses of her problems, we had her put down. We had been preparing oursleves for the worst, but hoped for the best. In the end, it’s really what was best for her. She’s no longer suffering or in pain, and this thought has kept me sane the past week.

During last Saturday evening, my girlfriend came to me crying. She missed Cerwyn. We divulged to eachother that we didn’t want to wait too long to start looking at other puppies. The void where Cerwyn once was, is ever more prominent. We have to do something to fill it, and soon. So, in the same conversation, we agreed to go and see what the breeder, who’d offered us first pick of a new litter for free, had to offer. We called our friend who’s raised Shelties for a long time, and had her go with us. In less than two hours, we were at the house of the breeder, looking at the four week old litter of puppies.

So, what did we find? Well, a place that’s just short of being a puppy farm. They had a couple of other types of dogs out there for breeding purposes. She had about eight or nine Adult Shelties for breeding. It wasn’t a puppy farm though. All of the dogs, short of needing some grooming, looked to be in fine shape. We saw the parents of the litter, and they looked to be in good health. There were two in particular we were looking at. The first, was a female tri-color, who wasn’t very alert and smaller than the other. We figured she was the runt of the litter, and even though she has wonder markings, we had concerns for her health. The second, was a sable colored female that was quite fat (we think this was due to stomache worms, and figured the breeder will take care of this shortly) and lively with tail wagging and all. She pranced around, and was kind of looking for something to get into or go adventuring. We laughed and decided on her.

As an after thought, I’ve almost been tempted to go and buy a puppy from another breeder. Unfortunatly, here in Amarillo, TX, we have very few of any kind of real breeders from many breeds. There are German Shepard breeders of course, but those are far too big for an apartment. As far as I can tell, there are no other Sheltie breeders in our area. There is one in Lubbock, but so far on their website, they only have three Shelties, and none of them are what we’re looking for. There are a few breeders we’ve found in Oklahoma, but all are farther than a day-trip, and we just don’t have the days off together to go see them. So, basically, we are more than likely going to take this little girl we’ve picked out from this litter into our little family, and be happy with her. We have copies of her parents pedigree, and one from another breeder that shows a few more generations back on the dam’s side. There are Champions in the bloodline, which means she comes from good stock, at least on the one side.

I guess I should go… Maybe more later…

Tags: Life, Pets //