Where did Shadow come from? Well, it was quite an odyssey. My former Weimaraner was named Chance and he was big and healthy. He hovered between 110 pounds and 120 and even the vet would say, "No, he's not overweight, he's just BIG" I like big dogs and I love the Weimaraner breed. When it was time to find a new dog, I decided I wanted to raise a puppy to maturity because I didn't have the opportunity with Chance.
I began contacting Weimaraner breeders all over the United States. I was looking for a "blue" male from big stock. I wanted to see pictures of the pair that had my puppy to hopefully get any idea of how big he might become. There were quite a number of responses from everywhere.
The was a breeder in South Dakota and another in Idaho that caught my eye. There wasn't any breeder that was due with new pups in Florida. As a matter of fact, I was rudely rebuffed by a lady in the Miami area. When I asked about a "blue", she got all excited and said. "Nobody wants blues, they don't conform (to show standards). They are a worthless dog". Well, to my way of thinking, every dog has a purpose, large or small, gray, brown, white, black and every variation. She and I didn't agree so I ended that call as gently as I could and kept looking.
In Georgia, I found a delightful lady, Donna, of Donna's Darlings. She was great to work with and had just what I was looking for. The puppy was eight weeks old at the time and ready to go to a new home. His sire and dam were big dogs and "blues". He already seemed large in the puppy pictures she sent. Actually, she sent me a number of pictures of several dogs, but mine communicated directly to me by his gaze in his photo.
The next task was to get the dog from Georgia to Florida. I had a friend who was going to be returning to Florida from North Carolina and agreed to pick up my new puppy and drive him to me. I did not want to put the puppy on an airplane and subject him to additional stress. It was going to be tough enough to be separated from the only home he had known up to that point.
The problem started snarling up trying to pin my friend down as to when he would actually leave. It was one thing after another for almost three and a half weeks. Donna was very good about keeping my dog while we waited for transportation. Finally my friend tore himself away and started south. I had already paid for the puppy so it was a matter of picking up the paperwork and driving him to me. I guess puppy was expected to be really tiny; when you say "puppy", you imagine this tiny ball of fur and my buddy had brought a very small animal carrier for the dog to travel in.
Low and behold, the puppy was twelve weeks old when my friend showed up. The little crate was too small by far. Maybe a shoehorn (probably a crowbar) would have crammed the dog in, but that idea was quickly forgotten. The dog was placed in a nice travel van and the first thing he did was throw up all over my friend. What a great beginning! So my friend cleaned up the mess as well as he could and off they went.
It was a ten hour trip down to my place in Florida and the duo arrived at six in the morning. My buddy went to bed right away; he was tired. My pooch was mostly thirsty so I laid out food and water. I was surprised how big he was. Of course, I had to document his arrival so I'm afraid I took quite a few "Welcome home" pictures. Finally he curled up on his dog bed and was fast asleep. He began snoring, but was such a cute puppy, he was forgiven at once. (My buddy snored out on the porch where he was sleeping and I've NEVER forgiven him).
One of the stipulations of the health guarantee for the puppy was to get him checked at a vet within a week of his arrival. We did that a couple of days later and puppy was quite a hit with all the vet technicians. He weighed in at nineteen pounds and was pronounced healthy.
At this point, the dog had no name. I let my animals name themselves. How he got his name is a story for another time.
If you have any interest in a Weimaraner, here is a phone number to Donna's Darlings: 706-376-4315. They are located in Canon, Georgia. About six months after I had gotten Shadow, a phone call came out of nowhere asking me if I would comment on the transaction of buying my dog from Donna's Darlings. I'm afraid I talked that poor man's ear off. I went on and on extolling the virtues of the breeder. I hope he realized I was NOT a shill and was honest in my accolades.
No comments:
Post a Comment