Do you know what nine years ago today was?

Chappy day!

Yes, it’s exactly nine years since we brought this fluffy little boy home.

He came from a breeder in western Pennsylvania, about a six/six-and-a-half hour’s drive from here. We were both agreed that it wasn’t really a feasible drive to do in one day (especially with a seven-week old puppy), so we drove out the day before, a Friday.

I had actually gone to work on Friday, with the plan for Mom and me to leave around 3:00 in the afternoon. I had such a hard time concentrating on my work, though! I couldn’t sit still for more than 10 minutes at a time, and kept pacing around the office on jittery legs, anxious to get my puppy.

Understand, I was nervous for a bunch of reasons. It was only three months since I’d lost Katy to a car and I wasn’t entirely ready for a new dog quite yet. I would have been happier if Chappy’s litter had been born a month later, to give me just that extra month to finish mourning for Katy. Three months just didn’t seem like quite enough time to say good-bye, but it was close enough that I was looking forward to the new puppy, too. Mostly, anyway. Part of me was still focused on Katy. (Which, incidentally, explains Chappy’s extreme sensitivity when her name comes up. Apparently I talked about her a LOT in his first weeks with us. I’ve explained to him many times that, well, I loved her, too, but still. He’s kind of got a little-brother complex there.)

I ended up leaving work around lunchtime because, hey, I wasn’t getting a lick of work done anyway. Mom and I threw our suitcases into the car, hopped on Rt 80, and headed west. We checked into the Best Western in Kittanning and tried to get some sleep … we were right next to the pool, so that was tricky, what with all the splashing and screaming going on on the other side of the wall. Not to mention the nerves. (And cramps. I had truly dreadful cramps that night, which I’ve decided were labor pains.)

The next morning, we met up with another mother and daughter who were also adopting one of Chappy’s litter that day, and then the four of us headed over to Randy’s. The puppy pile? Oh God, one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

I’ve told you about Red Ear, right? Mom and I had actually driven out to Kittanning two weeks earlier to pick out a puppy, whose ear was marked with red ink. Adoption morning, though, that puppy wanted NOTHING to do with us. He was at the bottom of the puppy pile and looked kind of tormented. I think Chappy told him horror stories about us for those two weeks so that he could have his chance with us. He had clearly set his heart on HIS being the puppy we brought home, and if Red Ear had remotely shown any interest in us, we never would have looked at the other puppies. But, Red Ear spent his time cowering in the corner and squirming whenever either of us would pick him up, so Randy said we could change our minds.

That left two puppies who really liked us. The others had been polite and friendly, but not particularly interested, but there were two who tried to win us over. Chappy and Mr. Personality. Mr. Personality threw every “cute puppy” trick in the book at us and was adorable and charming, but Chappy was smart. He paced himself so that when Mr. P conked out, he was still being winning and cute. He also focused on his Grandma and won her over first.

I was a mess, trying to make this decision. We had never had to pick out a puppy before, and with having lost Katy so recently, and Red Ear being so very much the wrong puppy for us, I was terrified that I was going to pick the wrong one. I don’t generally lose control or have hysterics or whatever, but I was so distraught trying to choose between these two puppies, at one point Mom even offered to get both of them. (When you consider we’ve never had more than one pet at a time in our house EVER, that should tell you what a wreck I was.)

Ultimately, though, Chappy’s planning and stamina paid off. He said goodbye to his four-legged parents, climbed into my lap in the car (the only time he got to ride in my lap instead of seat-buckled in the back) and promptly fell into a deep, exhausted sleep. I mean, that was quite a morning for a seven-week old puppy!

He slept soundly almost the entire drive back to New Jersey. He would blink awake when the car would go over a bump, or if a loud truck zoomed by. He woke up enough to sniff and look adorable at a couple rest stops, and when we stopped for lunch at a McDonalds. I did some of the driving, but most of it was Mom, while Chappy and I bonded.

When we got home, Dad met us in the driveway and took Chappy out of my lap. He looked particularly tiny in my tall father’s hands. We all went inside, and Chappy promptly started to explore–a big difference from Katy’s first moments in our house. (She had flown up on a plane and was still traumatized and unsure who on earth we were, and didn’t really want to do anything except cling to me.) Chappy, though, by this time was well-rested and pretty secure that we were WONDERFUL people, so he was delighted to explore. He looked like he couldn’t believe his luck, that he had toys all to himself, and his own dishes that he wouldn’t have to share with five other puppies.

Sigh.

I can’t believe it’s been nine years.

Thanks for picking us, Chappy.

(Psst. Hi, everyone, it’s Chappy. Mom doesn’t know I’m writing this. I know she thinks that I tried to scare Red Ear so that he wouldn’t want to be with them, but it’s NOT true. He was just a wimp, that’s all. He just LET the rest of us sit on top of him, he had no spunk. There’s no way he would have been the right dog for MY Mom. She needed someone with personality, and … not that other puppy. He was all show, but no real substance. I mean, he was my brother and I loved him, but still. He was way too vain for a puppy, and a show-off.

I, on the other hand, KNEW that I was the only possible puppy for Mom. I knew it the minute I saw her when she and Grandma came to visit when I was little. I was really worried that day when they didn’t pay any attention to me at all. Mom said once that was because one of us had shown some signs of hip problems when we were really little and she didn’t want to pick that puppy, so she avoided us bigger puppies on that first visit. I think that’s just silly, though. Obviously *I* was going to be perfect, but I couldn’t get her to look at me!

I did NOT tell Red Ear scary stories, but I did spend the next two weeks training, focusing my puppy cuteness until it was razor sharp to make all the people go “Awww” whenever they saw me. I knew I only had one chance, and I was determined not to miss it! And you know, I was still really little. I had a hard time concentrating on anything for more than a minute or two, so you can see how determined I was.

All my hard work paid off, though, and I got the best Mom in the whole world. But don’t tell her I said so. It’ll just go to her head. Oops. I hear her coming! Gotta go.)

Bye!

Tags: Chappy // 9 Comments »