Eddie was our first cocker and he sat on me for the duration of the time that we were at the breeders; his brother was a mentalist (a very cute one, mind), but Ed looked lovely and quiet. As he was our first ever pup I chose him because he looked quite chilled and I thought we would cope with him well due to how laid back he appeared. Well, you know what happened next don't you? We got him home and he turned out to be very hyper dog indeed. He was just tired when we were at the breeders!
I'm surprised we got another one after him (let alone four); he was a right bloomin' handful.
And so to my boy Jake (my favourite strawberry blonde
). We chose Baby J for all the wrong reasons. He was the last in the litter, he had been booked, but the person decided they no longer wanted him, he was ugly, he had a gammy eye, he was older, more cumbersome, more of a heifer, etc, etc. I was convinced that he wouldn't be wanted/picked by anyone for all of these reasons and I wanted him to have a good home and family - not to be left outdoors with a bunch of other dogs with no one to make him feel special. So, we paid our money and brought him home with us. And, I am so very, very glad that we did - he is truly a lovely boy; he absolutely adores my 16 year old son and vice versa. He's a little nervy, but we're working with him. He's also turned into quite a handsome adult lad, but it wouldn't have mattered if he had kept that puppy ugliness he would have always been a little special to us.
Now to Setomooncalf (my first blue roan). We were up in the very North of Scotland, in a tent at Dunnet Beach and the night before I was about to bid a tearful farewell to my beloved Highlands I had a dream about a blue roan cocker spaniel. We came down the road home and I phoned the breeder who just so happened to have pups ready; I assumed it was fate and we brought him home to live with us. He's definitely my boy through and through and has been from the moment we walked through the door. He's a right clingy sook of a dog right enough who wants to be near me wherever I am in the house - I can't even go to the loo without him following me!
Then there is the legend we call Yoshi - he's 14 and a half weeks old. All the family and everyone I know thought it was a terrible idea to get another dog, so, we hemmed and hawed about it for quite a wee while. Then I phoned a breeder 'just to enquire' you understand
and she had two week old pups - blue boys, a black and white and a wee girly. We went up to just 'have a wee look' you understand. I picked him out of the muttley crew - he surely had something about him; my partner liked another pup - a wee black and white (he'll be a right braw wee dug for somebody), but we thought he would be too much of a handful for Ed our oldest boy (bit boisterous even at only 5 weeks). Brought Bishi Bashi Yoshi him home with us 3 weeks later; he's fit in very well with our other boys who now don't have one intact ear between them due to his swinging on them.
Having four isn't that much different from having three! Although the move from two to three took a bit of acclimatisation, I must say.
