The Savvy Life

 

Knowing how difficult it can be to find a puppy in the San Francisco Bay Area (they get picked up fast), we started searching the local shelters back in August. As we got closer and closer to Christmas, I widened my search. 

 

A few days before Paul and I went on our tour of the Sierra foothills, I looked online to find shelters in that area.   I found a listing for the SPCA of Mariposa County and added a visit to our agenda.

 

When we arrived at the shelter we were greeted by Jeanette, the Shelter Manager. She asked one of her assistants to give us a tour of the kennels. We were greeted by an assorted pack of bouncy puppies. A brown pup immediately caught my attention.   Before I fell too hard for her, I took a few minutes to watch her and the rest of the puppies play. Although she had cute factor, I wanted to make sure she would be a good fit for Dante and Harlan. I was pleased that she was happy to play, but wasn't overly aggressive or shy. 

 

I asked Paul what his thoughts were and he also really liked the brown puppy. We went back inside and talked to Jeanette. The puppy was scheduled to be spayed that week and wouldn't be available to take home until the following week. We worked the delay into our plans and recruited my dad to help us play Santa.

 

This last Friday, my dad and other-mom Linda made the drive to Mariposa to pick up the puppy for us. The next day, Paul, Dante, Kevin and I drove to Camp Haze for a visit. My dad hid in the back with the puppy and Linda came out to greet us. She told Dante that Santa had stopped by earlier and left something for Dante. That got his attention. My dad then walked into the room with the puppy which had a red ribbon tied around her neck. Dante cried out "a puppy" and kind of went into shock. He had a goofy grin on his face but wasn't quite sure what to do for the first few minutes.

 

We spent the next hour getting to know the new addition to the Tosetti household. She is a sweet little girl and is all things puppy – curious, playful and happy. While we discussed potential names for her, she started chewing on the business end of my dad's spurs. I mentioned that one of my favorite characters in a movie is named Spur (played by Kirk Douglas) in The Man from Snowy River. We all looked at each other and unanimously agreed that it was a perfect name for her. 

 

Our dog Harlan is so happy to have a playmate. The entire situation worked out wonderfully. We got to rescue a puppy from a shelter. Dante received the coolest Christmas gift and Harlan got a playmate. Paul and I are so happy having a second dog again and Spur is a beautiful addition to our family.