Foolish Me - Part I
For the first time in many months, my house was calm and peaceful. We’d just given up a rambunctious puppy and were down to one dog, my cute little twenty pound Labradoodle, Vincent. But I was still itching to replace my precious Lucille whom I’d lost to cancer the previous summer. So, despite the many obstacles, including a scammer who ghosted me and my subsequent revenge plot against her, my quest to find a new dog continued.
THIS IS PART 1 of a FOUR-PART STORY
Vincent
For the first time in many months, my house was calm and peaceful. We’d just given up a rambunctious puppy and were down to one dog, a cute little twenty pound Labradoodle whom I’d bought to cheer myself up in 2015 after my sister died. His name was Vincent and now he was an only dog, nervous, neurotic and clingy, never wanting to let me out of his sight. Clearly he needed company and so I began to focus on getting another dog, a large, droopy-lipped, fluffy dog because I was dead set on replacing the beloved, twelve-year-old Newfie I’d lost to lymphoma the previous summer.
My goal was to find a mature dog, not a puppy, and that’s hard to come by in the world of Newfoundlands.
A friend located a magnificent ten-month-old Landseer (a black & white Newfie) on Craigslist and I immediately began to communicate with its owner, a woman who lived in Pearland on the far side of Houston, easily a three to four hour drive. We set a date to meet in Sealy, mattress capital of the USA, which was (sort of) halfway between our two houses.
The day before we were supposed to meet, however, something came up: I had to help one of my daughters find a new rental house as she was breaking up with her boyfriend and needed a place to live. I texted the dog’s owner, asking if she was cool with changing plans, and she said yes, so we agreed to meet the following weekend. In the meanwhile, she’d been answering a lot of questions about the dog.
Was he calm?
“Yes, extremely.”
Did he like to cuddle?
“Yes, all the time.”
Was he good with kids? Other dogs?
“Definitely.”
Maxwell, the Landseer in Pearland
What I learned was, he was crate-trained, was good on a leash, was housebroken, loved car rides, was perhaps overly affectionate – one of those dogs who’d push a book out of your lap because he wanted to be petted.
I wanted him.