Tomorrow, tomorrow...

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow, its only a day a-waaaaaaaaaaaay.

Too bad you can't hear me singing it. Well, maybe its a good thing you can't hear me singing it. My boarding pass is printed, and if my flight is on time, I'll be in the air at this moment tomorrow, on my way to meet Hardy.

Meadow doesn't care. She has expressed concern that we are putting away some of her favorite toys, like my old knee-highs, which she likes to steal and dump in the water bowl, or carry around like they are mice. We're more concerned about how she will respond when we put away her two "Ron Paul for President" bracelets. (They aren't ours!!) When Hardy is sleeping, we promise her we will get them out for a game of fetch.

And the puppy is..............

Red Boy! Got a wonderful email from Kristi about Hardy's day, and a fun new picture. Here's an extract from the email and a brand new picture:

"Hardy has had quite the day! We left for church at 7:15 and he was in a crate in the van. He had an appointment to get his health certificate at 9:00 and then we went to get the collars and he spent some time being hugged by a friend's brother who hasn't seen a sammy pup in years!! We then went to Devin's house and he then met their boxer mix. They played for a bit in the yard while Devin & I went to wash my car (Courtney, Devin's future wife, was babysitting). We came back, picked up Hardy & Courtney, and went to Petco, another pet store, and made one more stop. Everyone has asked if they could pet him. I had some shopping to do so Hardy has been watching movies cuddled on the couch with Courtney."

We had requested that when Kristi pick our puppy from among the 5 boys in the litter that she pick one that will, as Matt said, "Be mellow and lie on the bed with Dad, watching Youtube." Thank you, Courtney, for indoctrinating him into the being-mellow-while-watching-videos concept...

Readying the House for Baby

We've been busy with all the preparations for Hardy's arrival.

Meadow isn't sure why there are two new stainless bowls on the counter, and what on earth are these brightly colored keys made of Nylabone? She isn't quite able to drag them out of the bowl, so she went into Molly's room and stole Helena (one of Molly's two favorite stuffed animals) to play with instead.

The puppy play pen sits in our bedroom so Hardy will be safe during David's naps, and the soft-sided crate sits next to my desk, to keep Hardy safe when he gets used to it and David has to go to the doctor, or something, and needs to leave him alone in the house. It is so big I can fit into it, too, so helping Hardy adjust to the crate will be easy - I'll just join him in there!

We've never used a crate, and it looks a bit like a prison, but we've been reading up on how to train a dog to love it - like feeding him in there!


We're counting the days until he comes home. I fly to Arizona this coming Friday (6 more days...) to go to the dog show in Scottsdale, where his breeder, Kristi Schopfer, will be showing Hardy's dad, Maverick (Ch. Silverplume's Top Gun). Hardy and at least two litter mates will be traveling with papa to Arizona from Colorado. They'll be staying with grandpa, Ch. Cold Mountain's Tug at My Heart and his breeder, Susan Davies.

After the dog show, I'll go over and meet Hardy for the first time, and we'll hop on a return flight home to Southern California with Hardy in the cabin. Matt is planning to arrive at LAX about the same time I will, and Molly is flying down on Sunday morning to spend a day and a half with us, too. We are calling it Puppy Weekend.

Kristi will probably be letting us know tonight which of the puppies in her blog is Hardy. She has a friend coming this weekend to help her evaluate the litter. In the meantime, enjoy all of the litter at Kristi's blog: http://zoeandsammypups.blogpost.com.

Dedication

This blog is dedicated to our beloved Wil, who died at the end of January 2008. He enriched our lives and loved us unconditionally, and for that we are ever thankful. No dog will ever replace Wil, but we are busily preparing our home to welcome Silverplume's Rescue my Heart, and know that Hardy will help us heal and find his own special place next to Wil in our broken hearts. Special thank you to the breeder community who has helped us find Hardy, and specially to Susan Davies and Kristi Schopfer.