Hence The Title... Part 2

So with our beloved Gizmo gone, the house is quiet and lonely. My husband and I have very active yet separate schedules so we find ourselves at home alone a lot while the other of us is out with friends or working or participating in one of our many extracurricular activities.

I am uncomfortable now when I am home alone.... We have a large fish tank that contributes to a lot of background noise. So any little sound I hear makes me jumpy because I can't really tell what it is. With Gizmo around, we had the best watch dog in the world. If anyone tried to get into the house, she would let us know. Now, with the noise from the tank, I wouldn't know if someone was in the house until they were right behind me. It has gotten better lately... I am not quite as jumpy as I used to be, but I am still uncomfortable.

My husband noticed I was having issues right away. There where a few times when he would work late or run errands after work and I would keep calling him to find out when he would be home. If I was out and about, I would take as long as I could doing errands or visiting friends or helping out at church in order to let him beat me home. One day he confronted me... he wanted to know what was up. I couldn't give a straight answer. I finally said, "I just miss her so much." I told him about my concerns and he suggested we start looking for another dog. Not to take her place... no dog could... but to ease my fears and to make our house feel like a home again.

So began our search. The first hurdle was picking the breed. He wanted another Yorkie but I wanted a change. And deep down, I felt it was too soon... I didn't want to be comparing our new baby girl to the one we just lost... it wouldn't be fair to either of them. So we discussed and researched several possible breeds before deciding on a doberman pinscher.

Once we picked the breed, it was time to find a breeder. We made plans to visit many but we only made it to 2. The others we spoke to on the phone did not make us feel like they knew what they were doing or that they were serious breeders. One lady actually told me, "I am not a real breeder. We just love our dobes so much and sometimes they have babies." WTF? So we visited the 2 breeders who made me feel comfortable and that they knew what they were doing.

The first place was pretty good. The mom was on site and seemed to have a very good temperament. The puppies were clean and healthy and seemed to be well kept. We selected the one we wanted and told the guy we would let him know if this was the puppy we chose.

Before we visited the second place, I told the lady on the phone that we were not planning to purchase but that we were just visiting different breeders to get a feel of what there was to choose from in our area. She thanked me for my honesty and gave me directions. When we got there we were pretty impressed. Both parents were on site and had fairly good temperaments as far as we could tell. The puppies appeared healthy and well socialized with the family members.

While we played with the pups, the lady explained to us the differences between the colors (black & tan, "red", blue, and fawn) and why some were considered better than others (we already knew what the colors were but not the genetic pros and cons). She also told us what to look for when we did finally purchase a puppy with regards to papers and registration numbers, important questions to ask the breeder, etc. She spent over an hour educating us and we learned a lot. We picked out a black & tan and a "red" pup and told her we would let her know. We were not even 15 minutes away when I called her back and told her we wanted the "red" one.

So now we wait... "Red" will be 8 weeks old on January 7th and that is about when we will bring her home. My husband came bouncing into the kitchen last night and said with a smile, "I want my dog! I can't wait!" He is too cute... but I am just as excited :-)

We are currently discussing names...