Guest Post from Vintch

hey friends! this is courtney from vintch. when gina asked me to write about my pooch pablo, i jumped at the chance. because i'm such a proud mama. we've come so far.

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we had driven an hour when robert’s phone rang.

yes, this is the breeder. we really need a few more weeks with barron. we had to shave him and he is malnourished. just give us a little more time. he’s not quite ready to be seen yet.

her voice was loud and even against the rumble of the road, i could hear the words. my heart sank to my knees and i started looking for a driveway, anywhere we could turn around and head back home. but he hung up the phone and just looked at me. let’s just go. we’ve already driven this far. let’s just go see him.

we had responded only a week earlier to an internet posting on a breeder’s website. there was a five-year old bichon whose owner had neglected him, returning him to the breeder as he changed jobs and moved into a different city. unlike the glamour shots of pristine, white puppies displayed like trophies on the web site, there was no picture of him.

an hour later, with the sun long set, we pulled up at the breeder’s home. a giant, skinny greyhound rambled down the deck steps and onto the driveway. is this the bichon? robert asked as he squeezed my hand. she said he was malnourished…

she appeared at the front door, her hair piled into a high, frizzy bun and her plaid shirt untucked. she introduced us to her parrots, her puppies and her own bichon, a fat aging mass of curls who walked on the pads of her tiptoes.

then she opened the door and released pablo. he was frantic. he screamed in a way that only dogs can. he ran between our legs and around the table. he curled up in the tiniest ball, neglecting to enter the awesome pop-up crate we brought along, and had an accident in the car on the way home.

 pablo after we picked him up

 he did look awful. he looked sad and scared and lonely and alone.

we’ve spent four years spoiling him. letting him sleep on a velvet blanket and snuggle into late in the morning on saturdays. he’s returned the love, dedication and tremendous loyalty to us tenfold.

pets can be high maintenance. they can be messy and aggravating and when you want to go on vacation, they can be a guilt trip.

but when you come home and slip off the heels, and a whirlwind of tails and paws comes sliding across the hardwoods into your lap, you realize why you did it. why you wake in the middle of the night to bring him some water and twist into contortionist positions just so he can sleep against your shins. 

 and today

because no matter how he got there, he is yours. or are you his?