Okay so it’s Wednesday night and the day that I can’t wait to arrive and dread at the same time is quickly approaching. My dad called today and made an appointment with the breeder of the beagle puppy we reserved to pick the puppy up on Friday at noon. Ugh!! The date is set and now my stomach is in a knot.
I’m trying to keep my mind occupied with the fun stuff like thinking of a name, preparing the crate, buying dog food and dog toys, but thoughts keep running through my mind of another puppy that was in my life only a few months earlier. I desperately hope that no harm will come to this puppy; at least not for a very long time!! Of course, I know I’m being a bit paranoid and I can’t be so unlucky (or stupid) to have two puppies die on me in succession. Stranger things have happened…..
Moving on to a lighter topic: puppy names. I’m gone through the long list and the short list and we are finally getting down to the top 10. Just today on the drive home from school we were discussing the name “Taco.” Apparently I’m missing Mexican food something awful and Tam thinks that Tam, Tiger and Taco go together nicely.
At the momment I think Taco is #1 on the list. Other contenders are Gizmo, Diego, Cooper, Sawyer, Maxwell, Charlie, Zorro, Tucker, Eddie and Kobe. There were others but sometimes the names don’t work well for Thai speakers or sometimes it sounds like something else. Wayne, for example, was ruled out because it sounds like a Thai word which means “damn” or “damn it.”
I won’t set a name before I get to play with the new puppy a bit and try out the name. Sometimes the name sounds good, but it just doesn’t fit the actually puppy or dog in real life. I guess my Top 11 (I know I said 10) is a good start. Who knows, another name may take my fancy at the last moment! We’ll see!
Last weekend I went out to several breeders who had beagle puppies. The puppies were so cute and we went from place to place trying to decide on one in particular. Seeing all of the beagles was really heartbreaking and it made everyone miss our poor little Jack Jack.
When we got Jack Jack, I wanted to get a female, but in the end the selection of males was better so we got a male. This time it was the same case, the males were nicer and the final breeder with the best lines had only two males left. They were 45 days old and cute as could be. One had the classic saddle marking of a beagle and the other had a broken pattern that made it look like a cow. The breeder also had a three month old male that was playing with us, but he had chosen this particular one to show and was not for sale.
Making a quick decision we chose the male puppy with the saddle markings and I told my dad to bargain the price. To start the breeder wanted 10,000 baht for the one I wanted and 8,000 for the other. As soon as we started talking about the price and talked him down to 9,000, other people came to look at the puppies. The pressure was on, but we still wanted to get a better price on the 10,000 baht puppy. So, my dad takes out 2,000 baht and says its a deposit on the puppy I picked. The guy looks at the money and says that there would be 7,000 on deposit. My dad shakes his head and says no 6,000. The guy pauses and sighs before saying okay.
We got a slip for confirmation of the price and were told to return on the 31st to pick up the puppy. We left excited at the prospect of having a new puppy in the house, but missing Jack Jack at the same time.
