Everyone Loves a New Puppy

Everyone loves a new puppy. They smell so good. They are cuddly, soft, loving and want to play all the time… Some time back we lost our dear Duchess, a miniature schnauzer that had grown to be such a big part of our lives. We missed her so and grieved deeply until we both finally decided, maybe we just ought to try to fill the void with another dog.  Oh, it wouldn't be easy. We both felt that no dog could replace Duchess. We both declared in the beginning we wouldn't even try, so a new puppy was to be just that, a new start, a new beginning, another chapter of our lives. 

Duchess had become such an intricate part of our everyday life that I guess we just took her for granted and felt she would always be with us. Neither of us had even heard of AIHA, the rare disease that suddenly took her from us. We even had her given a complete blood transfusion which the vet assured us was the only possible treatment and of course we consented, anything for our little four-legged family member that had meant so much to us for the past 12 years. That night she stayed in the hospital was one of the longest nights in our lives and we rushed to be at her side early the next morning both anticipating a good report from the doctor. He told us that the red blood count was almost back to where it should be and all we could do was wait to see if it stabilized after the transfusion. She recognized us immediately and appeared to smile with her approval of our presence. We left with three bottles of medicine that the vet had said she would need to take to help her body ward off the disease if the transfusion had worked. We hurried home to pamper our sick pet hoping things would return to normal, but sad to say they didn't. For three days we noticed our little furry friend slowly drift back into the same debilitating state before her transfusion. Finally my wife and I began to accept the fact that the end was near and on Sunday afternoon, March 11 of this year we had the vet come to our home and help our beloved Duchess pass peacefully from this life into the next. It was the only humane thing to do, and we are at peace that she didn't suffer at the end...

But where would you look first, in the paper or maybe online?  What do you do when you decide to get a new pet?  So we mentioned to our friends that we felt we were now ready, those that had been so loving and understanding about our loss with Duchess.  We confirmed first that we wanted another miniature schnauzer.  The attributes of this particular breed was what we felt safe with so that was settled.  We ask the mailman if he knew a breeder, our neighbors, family and friends and ask them to ask others.  After about a week I received an email from a friend of a friend, if you know what I mean, about a web-site with a possible phone number.  We called and made an appointment to come, look at a small puppy and check the place out.  We were both very excited with the possibility of soon having a new pup under foot once more.  It would really be different but we both felt we were ready for the challenge…

© 2012 SamSonS