As many of you know, my heart was truly broken when we had to let our dear Phoebe go this past August. Despite the incredible pain that her passing brought us, we knew that we would get more dogs. Having a beloved furbaby as part of your family brings so much joy to your life that it becomes incredible empty without one. Our poor, dearest Phoebe had been sick for quite a while and I had been doing research off and on for years, looking into Pomeranian breeders. We stumbled upon Phoebe quite by accident. We were living in our first apartment together at the time and were fairly fresh out of college. Our downstairs neighbors bought a Pom named Daphne who was just the cutest thing and we decided we might like to have one of our own. Of course, Daphne turned out to be a drastically oversized Pom purchased from a pet store (gasp!) who, while we moved away before she reached full size, had to have topped out near 20 pounds. Definitely not within the breed standard of 2 to 8 pounds. Of course, Phoebe topped out at 10 pounds, so she wasn’t withing the standard, either. But I digress. We just happened to pick up a newspaper, looked at the ads and found some Pomeranian pups for sale not to far away. We went to see them one night after work and there were only two left by that time, both females. One was a red sable (I believe) and the other was a lovely orange who came home with us that night. I remember that she was much more energetic than the other, more friendly and more outgoing. She chewed a little bit on the tiny Nylabone that I had brought with us and she peed on the floor near me. Little did I know that was most likely a sign of the housebreaking battles that lay ahead of us. Here’s a hint – don’t bother to paper train a puppy if your end goal is to have them go outside. Just take them straight outside. You’ll save yourself a lot of hassle. Phoebe paper trained immediately. The transition from there to outside was a nightmare.
But, again, I digress. When Phoebe passed, I began the search in earnest for a local breeder who might fill the huge void left in the wake of Phoebe’s death. Through the wonders of the internet, I found a woman who lives an hour and a half away from us. I began a series of regular phone calls with her to discuss our situation, see if we might be acceptable, potential parents to two of her pups and what stock she had available. Yes, you read that correctly, I said two pups. You see, we decided a couple of years before Phoebe died that it would be really nice if she had a companion. However, we felt that introducing a new puppy at that point would be difficult and unfair to Phoebe, not just because of her age and her condition, but also because she was used to be an only “child.” So, we decided at that point that when we got our next addition to the family, there would actually be two additions. The breeder I spoke to had 3 females available when I spoke to her. At that time, I wasn’t ready yet to reintroduce dogs into our home. The pain was far too fresh and we were about to go to Disney for a week and a half, so the timing just wasn’t right. When we got home, though, the house just felt far too empty and I figured it was time to go see what the breeder was like and meet her dogs. We scheduled an appointment for Saturday, October 3rd.
When we left that morning, I was still quite uncertain about the prospect of new pups. I wasn’t sure that the breeder would accept us (she’s notoriously picky about who she sells her Poms to) and I wasn’t totally sure I was ready. Nonetheless, we packed up Phoebe’s crate and traveled north, even stopping at the local pet store to grab another crate for a second pup and a couple of Nylabones, since they had worked so well with Phoebe. I was incredibly nervous, unsure of where we were going and what to expect once we got there. We parked and went to the gate of a nice-sized, fenced in yard with a Pom garden flag and dog warnings posted. As soon as we reached the gate, there was an absolute swarm of fluff balls there to check us out, all barking at the top of their lungs. Opening the gate and pushing out way in without managing to let any of them out was quite a daunting task. She has over 20 dogs at her place! What a sight! We introduced ourselves, met a few of the dogs and, before I knew it, we were sitting in the yard with a dog in each of our laps. The two she had waiting for us were named Lily and Minibites. Yes, Minibites. Don’t ask. Poor girl was in heat for the first time and the males were absolutely frantic. They wanted her like you wouldn’t believe, so Terry served as her protector the entire time. I held for a little bit, at one point, only to have one of the males suddenly jump into my lap with her. I had Lily in my lap for a while, but once I put her down, she was quite aloof and wouldn’t come over to me. We spent several hours there and I still wasn’t certain, but Terry had known all along that we were coming home with two girls that day. And so, finally, we did. The breeder was incredibly generous, giving us everything to get started, from food, to bowls, to a bigger crate that could carry them both at the same time. We packed them up (having to run after Lily, of course, the little bugger), said our goodbyes and started the trip home. Oh my, was it a nerve-wracking trip. I was so nervous! Poor Lily, having never traveled in a car before (as we later found out), threw up 7 times on the way home. So, her joyous homecoming was being pulled out of the crate and plopped straight into a bathtub. No chance to get acclimated first; she was coated, and Abby was dirty, too. Welcome home, kids! LOL. The second thing we did, after getting them cleaned up, was to rename Minibites. Terry looked on the internet for female Irish names and quickly settled on Abby. So, Abby it is! Abby is a red sable who weighs in at around 4 pounds and Lily is an orange who weighs about 3.5 pounds. Itty bitties, but true to average breed size!
It’s been over 3 months now and I think we’ve finally gotten them settled in. We’ve been learning their personality quirks and their habits, teaching them how to play, trying to housebreak them, etc. I think we’re fairly well into a routine, now. They are unhappy when we leave and quite ecstatic when we return. Oh my, you should see them when we get home. They get so excited, they are nearly beside themselves. And so different in their personalities. I could go on and on about their quirks. Crazy kids. But, this post is already long enough and I haven’t gotten to the pictures yet! The full album is located here in my photo gallery, but here are some highlights of what we have so far:
Lily and my hand:
Abby and a keyboard:
Lily and Abby on the couch:
Lily and Abby sleeping on the couch (Terry calls this one “the double-headed dog”):
Silly Abby sleeping on the arm of the couch (yes, her eyes are partially open, but she is asleep):
AND the requisite post-bath photos:
Welcome to our two new little sweethearts! I love you, girls!
See, I told you I had a problem!