Zim's on Facebook!

I just put my baby on facebook. :D

http://www.facebook.com/OBEYZIM

Only 8 days until he comes home!

I AM ZIM!

So, since we now know which puppy is ours, I'm reposting a picture of him even though he is in one of the pictures below.

He comes home January 28th. We're naming him Zim, after Invader Zim of the Invader Zim Nickolodeon cartoon. We think that naming him after a narcissistic member of an advanced alien race trying to conquer Earth seems really appropriate. After all, our little boy is probably going to be trying to achieve Shiba world domination.

The Wait is Close to Over

So, Pam contacted me today asking if we wanted her to bring the two pups she thinks will stay small enough with her to Nova, MI, where she's headed this weekend, so we could come pick up our pup. Unfortunately, that would add 2 hours to our trip, though, so I declined. It's really probably best for the pup to have a shorter car trip. Possibly nicer to our ears, considering that I've heard stories of pups screaming the whole way home (hoping we'll avoid that one!). Anyway, she also told me which two she thinks will stay small enough. One of the red girls should stay small enough and . . . the black and tan boy with the green collar! As I noted in my last post, I was somewhat taken with that last pup when he crashed in my lap, so I'm thinking we have a winner. I'm so excited! We'll be going and picking him up the weekend after next (the weekend of the 28th and 29th).

Why oh why isn't that town in Michigan closer? I really want my puppy. :D

Back from Visiting the Pups!

So, today Fathead and I drove 4ish hours (I think it took us more like 4.5 but we hit traffic, ate a short lunch and made a wrong turn in Cincinnati, so I think it should be more like 4) to go visit the puppies. It was super fantastic. They're all fabulously cute and given the way they mobbed us, they all seem very friendly too. Pam has some seriously great dogs. Definitely feeling really good about getting one of her pups. The pups were all pretty charming (even the ones feeling slightly traumatized by worming, shots and microchipping) and all of the adults were simply fantastic. Really fantastic.

Anyway, so an update on the pup we will be getting. Firstly, after our visit today, Fathead basically said that if black and tans were still my favorite, as long as it looked like one would be small enough for us, we could get a black and tan. I was super thrilled about this, of course. Apparently he was really taken with Pam's adult black and tans, especially the father of the black and tan litters, Ike, and has decided that he really doesn't have a color preference. So we'll probably be getting a black and tan. :D

Nextly, we might actually end up getting a boy! It's too early to be really sure, but at least right now it's looking like a couple of the black and tan boys may stay small. Since we don't really care about sex, and just want a puppy that has a nice temperament and should stay small enough to be within our apartment's weight requirement, we'll be perfectly happy with a male if it looks like he'll be small enough. Indeed, I believe the one color-marked green is supposed to stay small enough and I have to admit, I found him pretty charming. He was very friendly and ended our visit by taking a nap in my lap. If it does seem like he'll stay small enough, then he may very well be the one we pick. :D

In other news, we rented a Chrysler 200 to drive out there (our car had developed an odd noise when idling and we didn't feel it was a good idea to drive it that far) and I have to say, I'm really glad we'll be going and getting the pup in our own car. I have two words for you, Chrysler: lumbar support. The Impreza is rally-bred and has noticeably stiffer suspension, but it gives my back no trouble, even over long distances. I came out of this trip with my lower back aching. The difference? The Impreza has very comfy seats with lumbar support. I never appreciated that before, but I do now.

Well, I would be posting pictures of the puppies, but I have a confession. I don't have any. We brought our camera with us, intending to take a ton of video and photos, but we left it in the car and once inside, we were just too enamoured with the puppies to leave them to go get a silly thing like a camera. I kind of regret it now, because it means that I have only my memories to over-analyze, trying to figure out which puppy may end up being mine, etc, but that's just how it is, I suppose.

That said, I will go ahead and post the pictures from the website of the black and tan boys, since we might actually end up getting one.

Unfortunately I have no idea which of these is color-coded as which.

Puppy Pictures!!!

Just got an E-mail this morning with pictures of the puppies available with our breeder. Posted here are the pictures of the females and therefore the puppies we might end up getting. They're all soooo cute!!!!

As you can see from the pictures, another black and tan female was born since I last spoke to Pam (she'd mentioned she had one last litter due when she e-mailed me), so our chances of getting either a black and tan or red and almost 50/50 now---which is great because I would really like a black and tan (although Fathead prefers reds).

Puppy should probably be home the last weekend in January. So excited!!

Great Success!

I've a list of foods that we might potentially feed our puppy that is based around four basic premises: (1) follows AAFCO guidelines, (2) has meat as its primary ingredient/protein source, (3) isn't overly high (30% or greater) in protein and (4) is able to be bought locally. So, based on that, my list is as follows: Avoderm Puppy, Innova Puppy, Wellness Puppy, Canidae All Life Stages and Taste of the Wild Puppy. So, having made this list, I've been e-mailing the manufacturers in order to get free samples (that way if the dog turns up its nose at the food, it's no problem). Well, as of today, I know I'll have at least 1 free sample bag of every one of those foods. Huzzah!

PUPPIES HAVE BEEN BORN!!!

So, when we mailed in our deposit on November 15, Pam was expecting a couple of litters, but none had been born yet. Now they have! :D :D There have been six girls born, which means, minus whatever Pam keeps for herself, we'll have our pick of six puppies (we're getting a girl because of weight restrictions on our apartment). I'm super excited about that because I'm really concerned with getting the right temperament for us. This is our first dog and Shibas are a challenge so working really hard to pick the dog with the right temperament is even more important than normal, I feel. I'm also somewhat excited by the mystery of what the new puppy will look like. There are two black and tan girls and four reds, so we'll probably end up with a red, but you never know! Ah, mystery.

PUPPIES!!!

Also, here's a picture of the unsuspecting the little rat-sibling of our puppy. Because she's just too cute and she deserves to have her furry little face plastered all over the internet. Too bad my pictures are a bit blurry from being taken with an iPod. Oh, well.