The Waiting...

The waiting for "Allie" to go back into heat seemed to go on forever.  We wondered if there might be something wrong with her.

In the meantime, we attended dog shows and agility trials. We met a lot of "Aussie" people who have become friends of ours. They offer advice and answer our multitude of questions. Most have told us to be very wary of the breeder we've chosen for our pup. "He's a used car salesman." "Nobody can pick a show quality pup at 3 weeks; what is this guy thinking?" "Can you get your deposit back?" Doug was starting to have concerns.

Denali and I attended agility classes with a woman named Jodie and her dog Bumblebee. Bumblebee is a finished AKC Champion Australian Shepherd. We call her Bummy.

For months she told us that if the deal with that other breeder fell through, she'd help us find the perfect show-quality pup.  She called her breeder-friend Jeff and told him about us.

Doug decided that talking to this breeder couldn't hurt anything.  The first phone call lasted about an hour.

Jodie was so excited for us, "You're on the List!" We weren't so sure about the List. Who was on the list? How long is that list? Who's ahead of us on that list? Was there really even a List?

I tried to "Friend" Jeff on Facebook so I could communicate with him (Doug's not on Facebook.) But my Friend-request went unanswered. I could see the items he posted publicly, but I could not comment. We saw that his partner's mom became very ill. We saw that he had a litter born on March 29 (one day after Doug's birthday, and the same day as my brother.) I messaged him through Facebook congratulating him on the litter (wondering if they'd all been spoken for.) Jodie knew he had another litter due about the same time, but he sort of disappeared from Facebook for a couple of months. He wouldn't even return her phone calls. It all seemed odd. We were getting concerned about this breeder Jodie had introduced to us. I messaged him through Facebook again to let him know I was coming to a dog show in the same state where he lived. I was hoping he would be there and we could meet. Still no answer.

Then, on Mother's Day (5/13,) Doug got an email from him. Jeff had a puppy he thought would be perfect for us. A little blue merle male. Were we interested? The dad to this pup is Bummy's litter brother! So Bummy is this boy's Aunt! Doug responded back that he was, indeed, interested in this pup. And then there was silence again... We were so confused and on edge. Were we getting a puppy, or not? We didn't know for sure.

On May 20, I got a text from Jodie. Jeff had posted 7-week photos of the litter on Facebook. These were the pictures he posted on Facebook:

Because he had yet to accept my friend request, I couldn't see the pictures from my phone. I asked Jodie to tag me in them. NOW I could see the photos, and make comments, too! Jodie and Jeff had been commenting about how this was the one Jeff had picked out for Doug! Just LOOK at that face! We are so excited!!!