Luke's story

I've decided to write about each of my dog's entrance into our lives. I was going to start with the Matriarch of the family but Luke had a seizure tonight so I'll write about the young'n in the bunch. Luke seized due to being waken from a deep sleep and thrown into the hectic sounds of Tilley barking madly. This is what usually does it and sure enough he had a bad one. He is fine and sleeping now.

Luke is the baby, at almost 9 he will be my baby until another real baby joins our family. Luke joined us in November of 2000. That July I had lost one of the loves of my life; Clyde, and although by November I was more than ready to add another dog to our family I was not ready for another boy yet.

Luke was born August 16th, 2000 to a blue Mother named Lacey. His Father's name is Chico and from what I've heard of him Luke not only resembles his looks but also his personality. When I first met Luke I was in the process of adding a niece of Tilley's to our pack, things were being worked out. At the sametime a friend of mine had a litter. I decided to have a look at her puppies before they all found their way into a new home.

I arrived that day thinking "this will be fun." She greet me at the door and I immediately met the gang. Mom was on the couch as she had become ill after having the pups and had required surgery; she was resting. This had meant alot of bottle feeding for my friend, that is a huge commitment. Now 7 weeks they were weaned and on their way to becoming dogs.

The pups were in the backyard; they'd had an early start to the day, one had gone on a plane ride to his new home. The whole litter was black except for Luke who was a beautiful light amber color and his sister who was cream. Everyone was asleep, except Luke. As we walked through the yard we discussed the litter; I wanted to know who was the pick, who was an agility prospect, which pup was the timid one and who was the bully.

The entire length of our discussion Luke continued to jump on me and want attention. Finally after putting up with his constant jumping and climbing on me I held him in front of me and asked "do you want to come home with me?" Not even thinking about what I had just said I placed him down as the rest of the bunch started to wake up. They were all very friendly but Luke stood out, bigtime.

I found out that Luke had been the chosen boy for show, he was a looker. Before I left the litter thoughts started seeping into my head; he had definitely caught my eye and he had tried his hardest to wriggle into my heart as well. I said my good byes and was on my way home when I realized that I was still thinking about that little blonde boy. Once home it was all I could do to try to get him out of my head; what had happened?

The plans to ship a puppy from back home fell through; partly because I had a puppy right here in my town who obviously wanted to be mine. It took me 5 weeks of contemplating to come to a decision. With the help from some amazing friends; I made the final call to my friend and asked "do you still have the blonde boy?" I held my breath not really wanting to know the answer; sure that he was already happy in someone else's home. "Yep, he's here."

We drove to Huntington Beach that Saturday and picked him up. He was freshly bathed, he was an armful at 12 weeks, an armful of beautiful soft blonde curls.