petertheschnauz

Once upon a time, in a little town called Nottingham, two very cute schnauzies made more very cute schnauzies.  Their names were Fonz and Shirley.   Not too far away, in a section of Boston, called Southie lived a human and her sister.  The human was named Jamie and she had always loved herself a dog.  Her dad, who lived not to far, had a most fabulous black lab named Smudgey, but Jamie wanted a pup of her own.  Actually she wanted to want a pup.  The jury is still out regarding whether or not she actually wanted one.   One day, just before Thanksgiving, Jamie’s sister got it in her head that she wanted a schnauzer.  But she wanted the schnauzer to be Jamie’s schnauzer because she wasn’t sure she wanted to commit. Jamie’s sister was the boss of Jamie.  She still kind of is, to be perfectly honest.   Jamie’s sister orchestrated a puppy search with Jamie, Moe and their dad.  And Smudge.  She went everywhere with her daddy.  In case you are wondering what Smudge looked like here she is:

Wasn’t she beautiful?  She’s not with us anymore, but she is greatly missed.

ANYWAY back to the story of me, not Smudge, but maybe I’ll have to tell that one day.  So Jamie, Lindsay (mom’s sister/roommate), Melissa (Moe, Pawblo, etc), Smudge and their dad all piled into the car to follow leads that Lindsay had found on the classifieds for Schnauzer puppies.   First the went ALL the way down to almost the cape and found a horrendous place that mom doesn’t like to think about.   It was pretty much a puppy mill type place and no one could stomach getting a puppy there. So they followed their next lead ALL the way up to New Hampshire.   Nottingham is a small town not far from where mom went to get her undergraduate degree.   The place where I was born was a small house full of kids and puppies.   The owner of Shirley and Fonz was a married mom of four who was also a nurse.  She was caring and willing to see mom and her family late in the evening.

When the family came into the house there was a litter of brown schnauzer puppies who were not ready to go to their forever homes yet.   The woman explained that there was one salt n’ pepper from a previous litter that hadn’t found a home yet and was ready to go.  She brought him out.  He was me.  She brought out my parents and my dog mom Shirley immediately jumped into mom’s dad’s lap and made herself at comfortable.   Fonz did a round of sniffing and settled by the kids in his family.   Mom, Lindsay, Moe and Mom’s dad discussed the options.  Choose one of the younger pups or take the left over from the last litter.  Mom was tired.  They had spent the whole day looking for puppies.  She wanted something to show for it.   (She was young).  She choose the leftover so she could take me home that night.   Although she didn’t make the decisions for the right reasons, she definitely made the right choice.

They took me home that night.  It was the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2003.  When they brought me out to the car, Smudge was not impressed.  In fact she was pretty pissed. They had done no preparations for a new puppy so they had to find an open pet store to buy stuff. On our way back to Boston I pooped on Lindsay.  This is something that Mom’s dad has never let go.  And brings up all the time.  He thinks it was hilarious.  He thought it was less hilarious when I pooped at his feet in the living room of the lake house a few months ago though.  Mom thought both were pretty funny.   I digress.

Mom brought me home and went to a party.  SHE WENT TO A PARTY.  Unbelievable.   She left this:

To go to a party.

I guess you could say that her enthusiasm for having a puppy had to grow.

Here are the things she remembers thinking that first night (after she came home from her party):

“why is he crying?”

“I can’t do this for the next 13+ years”

“I”m going to have him until I’m in my 30’s!”

Nice right?  But our love grew.  Within a week she was as obsessed with me as she should have been.  She woke up several times a night to let me out to “go potty.”  She watched me and praised me.  (She gave me a litter box?!?!?)

She bathed me

She made me sleep in a crate (I pooped in it several times)

Thank goodness she doesn’t do that anymore.  Obviously I am much more comfortable in my bed.

She and I became the bestest buds that we are today.   We didn’t have the best start and Mom would never recommend getting a puppy with such little thought or preparation. But luckily, for us, it all worked out.  And now 11 years later, when mom is well into her thirties, she never wants to let me go and there is no one else she’d rather take a terrible Sunday night selfie with.   

What are your puppy love stories??

PS.  Since I was born in Nottingham, and I’m also a Sheriff.  I guess that makes me the Sheriff of Nottingham!  HAHAHA

Sorry.

Have a great week everyone, See you on IG!!

Side note-  We are going to try to post once a week- if you have anything you would like us to write about, please let us know and we will do it.