We’ve got a few more weeks before Mistletoe’s official “gotcha day” on New Year’s Day but today we mark the first anniversary of a date which shall live in infamy…oh, hold on…sorry about that…a date of joyous advent which was Scout and Waffle’s “Breakfast Buffet” litter.
Katie had no idea at the time that one of those brand-new puppies would be coming to join her during the festive season. And even though officially she was Katie’s gift for being an all-round generally awesome person, the artist formerly known as “Eggo” has become a gift to us all the likes of which we could never have imagined at the time.
From Mistletoe’s birth up to the point she left the litter and came home to rule us all, we’d surreptitiously check out the breeder’s web page for the weekly updates and drool over the pictures of those cute Australian Labradoodle puppies. OK, we were probably on that site more than we ought to have been but in our defence we couldn’t exactly help the fact that even though none of us really knew much about this breed, you couldn’t deny that they were so darned adorable.
The real trick was trying to keep Katie in the dark that one of those puppies was destined for her arms whilst simultaneously making plans for her arrival which would definitely throw a great big spanner into the workings of our usual routines.
Of all the puppies, she connected with “Eggo” right off the bat but it wasn’t a certainty that would be her puppy. There were a couple of others in that litter that might well have come her way and I’m sure she would have been thrilled with any of them but she kept going back to “Eggo” being her favourite by far.
Truth be told, she wasn’t the only one thinking that!
I don’t know how successful we were at that but she seemed awfully surprised when she was finally let in on the great secret and was over the moon when it was finally confirmed that “Eggo” would be the one owning our daughter (and the rest of us).
But darned if that wasn’t the toughest seven weeks we’d had in a while…and that’s bearing in mind that we were well and truly in the throes of the pandemic.
Thank goodness for her coming to us on New Year’s Day. I don’t know that we could have waited much longer and as cute as her growing up pictures were, they had *NOTHING* on the newly christened Mistletoe in real life.
These pages have chronicled her development over these many months since that wonderful day and she has certainly grown into quite the beautiful dog that is about as loving and playful as one could dare to dream. She’s also easily one of the most intelligent dogs I’ve ever known…the things she picks up and the speed with which she does is still remarkable.
And then there’s the laughs she’s brought us along the way such as this little exchange last night that smelled just a little too rich…
And it turned out the nose was right…Katie copped to lobbying for the puppucino treat for her puppy but the rest of it was a bit…enhanced, shall we say. After her enduring the insane traffic in the area, the enhancement was certainly necessary… 🙂
Anywho, where were we?
Ah, yes. Happiest of birthdays to our favourite puppy-doodle and may she have many more to reign over us! 🙂
