The End of Life as I know it

The End of Life as I Know it

OK, so that sounds portentous, but things here will change very soon. And I am very excited about it, although some people are warning me that my life will soon be over. I like to think of it more as a change of career. Starting tomorrow, Monday, April 13, 2009, the 12 pound blob of puppy pictured here will become part of my household. Wilbur.

My plan is to keep a blog to follow his development. It's a nice plan, but people tell me with a puppy I won't get to do a lot of things I planned to do. We'll see. He must sleep sometime.

When Katrina of CCI approved me for puppy-raising, she offered me one of two puppies from the W litter: Woodrow or Wilbur. Obviously, neither name is good, so all things being equal, it didn't really matter. But I knew Woodrow and Wilbur will be very much their own souls regardless of their names, so I have to find a way to choose. As long as I teach the pup his proper name, I can eventually use a shortened endearment.

I will be picking the pup up in April, the birth-month of my beloved William Shakespeare. So Wilbur can occasionally be Will.

Anyway: Woody? I don't think so.

In the weeks before I was approved Katrina, I had already started to prepare for the yet-unknown puppy. No, really. I had bought:

* a portable dog pen

* good nail clippers

* a Furminator deshedding blade

* grooming brush

* kongs

* nylabones

* bowls

* crates

I did not know if telling Katrina this would encourage her that I was well prepared or just frighten her that I was obsessive, so I did not. But in those weeks it felt good to buy things before I had a name and date for a puppy.

Katrina sent me the picture above, which I immediately sent to everyone in my addressbook and posted on Facebook. I also called my CCI friends and friend-friends. Jean (puppy raiser and mother of graduate Morgan) went to the CCI listwerv and inquired about Wilbur's parents. I had no idea. Within 5 minutes, I received this email from Jean:

Congratulations!! This is really a beautiful, adorable baby. You may be faced with dog napping activities from some of your friends!

A little bit of research past his birthdate:

Mom: Niobe II - who appears to be related to Patrice and also a Grandpup of Bobby (very, very famous, successful CCI breeder) - She's really pretty - photo under breeder photos

Jaker: is full black lab - born 2/23/2007 - Yvonne II x Mondo - no picture of him

So, we have a family with some grandparents. That was indeed fast.

I joined the CCI Miracles Listserv, introduced myself as a new puppy raiser looking for any information on Wilbur of the recent W litter. I received this message almost immediately:

Hi Elly,

My name is Mo Nard, and I am a volunteer breeder caretaker for CCI in Sacramento, CA. I have Niobe II. Wilbur II is headed your way from what I understand (friend forwarded me a

post she saw that you had done on CCI Miracles). Wilbur is adorable and very sweet. He was born on Feb. 16^th. He is the light pink collared pup. Let me know if you have any questions about your little guy or his mother or siblings.

Wags,

Mo

And these pictures:

Wilbur clearly was the cutest of all the puppies, and there was a graveness to his demeanor clearly beyond his five weeks. I had great hopes for him. I was going to raise John Conner.