I’ve always been a bit afraid of announcing the really good stuff that’s going on, for fear of somehow jinxing it away. For example, it was months after Jeff & I started dating that I really started telling people he was anything other than “another .net boy” and I still am sort of reluctant to talk about exciting things like building a house (yes, there’s another post there, still to come).

The big news in my life is that I have a puppy.

As you may recall, I had an experience before Christmas that led me to believe that I *might* be able to have a puppy, which is something I’ve always always wanted.

At the start of this year, “Investigate Pomeranian” made it onto my (always way too long) To Do list. After calling around a bit, we found a breeder (Cindi Wolfe, of Wolfe Kennels) in Graham who had just had a litter of Poms and who was happy for me to come meet them. The following Saturday Jeff and I headed out to Cindi’s and I got to meet India, who was only three weeks old. (OMG!! TEH CUTE TO KILL YOU!!!!) She fit into the palm of my hand and after snoozling a bit fell asleep in my arms.

To tell the truth, I was a bit hivy and sneezy during the visit, but there were *bunches* (seven?) of dogs (and not all Poms) so it was really hard to isolate what was going on. I enjoyed meeting Cindi, though, and I knew that she understood how much I wanted this. She even agreed to let me come back and visit as many times as I needed to in order to make sure that I really wasn’t going to swell up and die.

About this same time, I also paid a visit to my allergist, Dr. LaForce, whom I’d started seeing more than a decade ago, and with whom I’d even done a round of immunotherapy (shots. ow). He did a spot test and confirmed that I really am still allergic(1) to dogs, wrote me a scrip for Zytec and wished me the best of luck (I’d been hoping there’d been some sort of miracle drug developed in the last decade. Sadly, there’s not.)

A few weekends later we went back and visited again…the somewhat (to me) odd thing was that I had *missed* the little puppy after that first time I met her. At that second visit, Cindi (who went so far above and beyond that it’s almost impossible to describe) said she’d even bathe the little girl with the allergen-reducing shampoo and keep her away from the other dogs so I could meet her uncomtaminated.

The pictures from that visit are here — you can’t see it, but I did hive up when she licked me on the face. Not insurmountable, as you can teach puppies not to lick. Other than that, no major issues.

Five days later I picked up India(2). She’s a handful, but then as I understand it, most puppies are. It’s sometimes really frustrating because we don’t know what she wants. She will cry, and we’ve no idea why, or she’ll be absolutely running around mad, and there’s no rhyme or reason to it, it seems.

A learning experience for me, for sure. I love her muchly and hope it works out. Everyone keep their fingers and other appendages crossed for me!

(And if you want to meet the world’s cutest puppy, let me know! She’s had her last puppy shot, so she can now socialize with other dogs (as long as they’ve had their shots).

(1)
I don’t know whether this is common or not, but when everyone seems to suffer from the same affliction I do, I tend to minimize the seriousness of the affliction… I think to myself “Oh yeah, allergies…everyone has allergies. I’m probably over-reacting and being a fuss-budget.

At Dr. LaForce’s I asked him if I really did have seriously bad allergies, or if I was just overestimating my state. He laughed and said “Oh, no, Gina, you’re really allergic.”

To which I replied “I bet you say that to all the ladies”

He laughed again, and I added “No, really, though. Out of 100% of the population, just how bad are my allergies.?”

He replied, “You have one of the worst cases of allergies I’ve ever seen. Seriously.”

So at least I’m not a crazy hypochondriac!

(2) India because she’s black like India Ink. Her whole name is India Friday (for the Steely Dan song “Black Friday”) Wolfe (for Wolfe Kennels).