cody

Hi! I am Katie of Southern NJ, and I am 15 years old (as of 3/20/01). July 2001 I was searching the net, and came across this really cute dog about an hour away from me, named CC. I would look at her picture every day, making sure she wasn't adopted yet. Well, after about 3-4 weeks, I got the guts to ask my mom if I could have her....knowing she would say no. Well, she said no because we already had enough pets....12 rats, 2 cockatiels, 1 parakeet, 3 cats and 2 dogs. I told her I would find homes for all my rats and my 2 cockatiels, and said I would pay for CC. After that, she said ok. Then she brought up the idea of training her to be a therapy dog since on her information sheet it had said she would make a great therapy dog, and I agreed it was a good idea. Well, that day I called the foster mom and got some information on CC....I tried not to get my hopes up but it was hard. When I talked to the foster mom, she had sounded like she already had someone in mind to adopt CC. When I called her back the next day, she didnt answer her phone. I emailed her a few times, and after about a week got a responce saying she was already adopted. I was heartbroken. The dog of my dreams was adopted!

Well....then I decided to start searching for my next perfect dog. I went to www.petfinder.com and searched the local animal shelters for my new dog. My mom narrowed it down to what I was allowed to have: less than 40lbs. full grown, NO terriers, must get along with dogs, cats, and kids, house broken, and crate trained. It also had to be pretty close to home. After weeks of searching, I didn't find the dog I wanted. Then I decided to get a purebred dog. I wanted a dog with long fur, because the two mini Dachshunds I have now, have short fur. I also wanted a boy, because we have two girl dogs. I bought a dog breed book at Barnes & Noble and compared the different breeds. I narrowed it down to: Bloodhound, Australian Shepherd, Sheltie, Corgi and Basset Hound. Then I remembered we have these long stairs that would be hard for Basset Hounds and Corgis to get up. Also, Bloodhounds were a little too big, and our yard wasn't big enough. So, I started to research Australian Shepherds. I decided this was the breed for me. Well, I searched for a local breeder, and the closest was Northern NJ and the puppies were way to expensive for me. Then I discovered there were mini Aussies. That might be better for me, since theyre smaller. Well, again the closest breeder I found was in NC. Then, I decide to look into Shelties. My mom agreed that that breed was the prefect dog for us!

I showed my mom the ad, and asked her if we could go see the puppies they had for sale. She said ok if I called the owner of the pups and asked what time we could stop by. My mom made it clear we weren't taking ANY puppies home that day. Well, I called the owner of the puppies and asked if we could stop by that day, around 7-she said that would be fine. Well my Mom, my brother Brian, and I drove 20min. to see the dogs. They were located in Monroeville, NJ on a farm. When we got there, we saw 2 pens and 1 rabbit hutch of puppies. One pen had 3 Black Lab puppies and 3 Sheltie puppies. Another pen had about 6 Maltese puppies. There was also a rabbit hutch with 2 Boston Terrier puppies. I then began to realize we were at some sort of puppy mill. I was completely against puppy mills, and would have never bothered coming if I knew before hand, but once I saw those Shelties, one in particular, I couldn't resist! They were jumping up and down, saying "Pick me! Pick me!" All but one. There was one small Sheltie puppy curled up in a plastic dog crate.... I didn't know if he was sick or just tired, but he was the one I wanted. I always had a soft spot for the runts. So, I got him out of the pen and I showed my mom. I looked at her, and she looked at me, and I knew I had found the one for me. We talked to the owner and put a deposit down. We couldn't take him home that day because we hadn't gotten the crate in the mail yet. So we decided to pick him up the next week.