The Daily Q: Puppy Love

The Pandemic seems to be creating a collective desire for puppies. I am fielding inquiries about puppies every day.

My goal in responding to people is not to sell a puppy — it is to help people understand what they should be looking for in a Berner and a Breeder. To do this, I have to be gracious and kind even when I feel insulted.

And yes — some of the inquiries are unintentionally insulting.

“Got pups? How much?” is #1 on my list. If availability and price are what matters most to a potential puppy home, we are definitely not compatible.

Further, people focused on price, availability and/or markings are the people who are unintentionally driving the misery of puppy mills and other unfortunate puppy producers. I know well those who do not know enough to care about health testing, pedigrees, longevity and so forth will find someone who can meet their superficial criterion for a puppy — and so demand is created.

I try. I answer every inquiry and I do it politely. Some people are indeed open to new ways of thinking about what it means to buy a purebred dog, and I am “fishing” for those people.

But it is not always easy on my heart, and it takes time, which is in short supply these days.

And speaking of puppies, I have ordered a Pandemic Canine Pregnancy Test — it arrives next Wednesday.

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These are indeed strange times.

The Daily Q: Amazing

Behold the small and insignificant plastic bread tie thingee…

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Apparently it had fallen on the floor.

I walked into the kitchen to see this…

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That thingee is flat and small. How exactly does Sparkle do this kind of thing?

“Amazing,” I said to myself.

And then I thought — we all do amazing things. We just forget to notice them.

Sparkle makes it hard to ignore her amazingness — she just sits there until I notice.

We need to be more like Sparkle — quietly patient and persistent in pointing out to ourselves what amazing thing we have done now. Especially now.

Go You. Go Me.

We got this.

One amazing thingee at a time.