Last weekend, Saturday 2-4-2012 and Sunday 2-5-2012, will be remembered as a very eventful weekend in the Schneider-Farris Family's life.
You see, we were really sad to not have a dog in our house. It was only two days after Porcher's death.
Rebekah asked to go to the Humane Society to just see and touch dogs. When we got home, we decided that maybe we really needed to make "that trip to Nebraska" even though the weather had been really not geared for travel the day before. We decided if we didn't make the trip, we would always wonder if there was a dog (or dogs) there that were meant for us. So...
Annabelle was away at an overnight weekend birthday party in Vail, so Dan and I and Joel and Rebekah packed quickly, got in the car, locked up the house, and off we drove into eastern Colorado, heading for Kansas and southwest Nebraska.
Why Nebraska?
Well, after Porcher died, I had looked all over the internet for blond Pomeranian dogs for sale. I located two in Nebraska at an animal shelter. I was delighted when Charlotte Hall of the Southwest Nebraska Small Animal Rescue contacted me. We set up an appointment for Sunday 2-5-2012.
I didn't know anything about dog rescue efforts when Charlotte called. During the call, I learned that the two blond Ponmeranian dogs we were interested had lived with a breeder and were not raised as house dogs. I learned they'd never been on leashes and they were just being potty trained although they were both about four years old.
Below are photos of Powder Puff and Sugar, the two Pomeranians we were interested in.
When I told family and friends about the dogs, some people said, "Take them!" Others said that these dogs would not replace our beloved Porcher and to be cautious.
The trip was really fun. The best part was when we stayed in a Comfort Inn in a town called Colby, Kansas. We had a King Suite with two large screen TVs and the indoor pool was open 24 hours! We went swimming late at night and the pool was so warm.
In the morning, Rebekah and I went swimming again and we ate the hotel's hot breakfast and that was fun too. On the big screen TV in our room, Ani\mal Planet just happened to be airing a show called "Bringing Your New Puppy Home." I thought that was "interesting," but thought it didn't apply to us since we were going to adopt adult dogs, not a puppy (or so, I thought...). We also watched a show on puppy training and dog grooming!
After we left Colby, it just took about an hour for us to get to McCook, Nebraska. We met Charlotte Hall at a hotel parking lot, and we followed her to her daughter's house, where the Southwest Nebraska Small Animal Rescue was based.
The two blond Pomeranians were there, but to our dismay, they didn't want to see us. In fact, they ran away from us to far corners of the yard. Once we found them, we took the dogs in the house. One of the dogs, named Powder, would let us hold her after awhile, but the other just didn't really like us all that much. She began to not be as afraid after awhile. We then met a bigger boy Pomeranian (which we named Rob) that loved us.
(The video below shows Powder just sitting in the corner wondering what to "do" about us.
We then asked Charlotte if we could see what would happen when we put the dogs on a leash. To describe what happened was THEY FREAKED OUT. They just were not ready for us and we were not ready for them. If it hadn't been for what we saw when "Rob" was put on a leash, we might have taken him. He was so, so loving.
(The photos below shows the other blond Pomeranian named Sugar and also Sugar and Rob, dogs we did not adopt.. Although the dogs look happy, Sugar did not like us at all. "Rob" liked us, but just would never have adjusted to being a house dog. Sugar looked so much like our dear Porcher, but sure didn't act like her.)
There was a puppy in the group that was wonderful though. She didn't have any trouble adjusting to the leash and also was not afraid of us. The kids kept pleading for the puppy. We were told that there was little information about her, but she was from a Missouri breeder and her mother was a Pomeranian.
The photo below shows Dan smiling and holding Duchess before we made the decision to take her home.
Finally, we made the BIG decision: We adopted the puppy and took her home. I wrote some checks and signed a contract and by the time all that was done, we'd named our new puppy Duchess. Later, we also gave Duchess the Hebrew name Sarah.
Duchess began the long 6 hour drive home to Colorado Springs.
Duchess has been with us almost a week, and we still miss Porcher so, so much, but it wonderful to have a new puppy to love. Having her as part of our family will help all of us learn about loving, but also help us move forward. She has already been to the vet, she's wagging her tail every time we see her, getting better at potty training, playing with us, cuddling with us, and making us very happy!
(Note: The photos below don't include Annabelle since she was not with us on our trip to Nebraska. Annabelle met Duchess on Monday, February 6, 2012, when she returned home from the overnight birthday party weekend in Vail.)
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