How we came about bringing Reggie into our lives...a true love story.

Reggie, our White German Shepard and faithful companion of 14 years, came into our home, lives and mostly our hearts in January 1997 when he was just a pup of 8 weeks.  We had been without a dog in the house for 6 years.

Our previous dog, Gypsy, a Silver Siberian Husky was my husband's before he met me.  I was always a little jealous of the love he had for her over me...but afterall, she was his girlfriend and love before me.  She was beautiful.  She lived for 18.5 years but eventually her sight, legs, bladder and bowels all went and we made that decision to let her go and be out of her misery.  Still hard to do but it was time, she had a great life after my hubby rescued her from an abusive, alcoholic who beat her as a pup.  Oops, this is about our sweet Reggie, I digress.

Part of our heart wrenching decision to let Reggie go was the fact that his body had not failed as much as Gypsy's.  You see, from his 'waist' up, he was still here and 'with it', right up 'til the very end but the vet assured us that the lame leg was just the beginning of a rapid decline which would cause him much suffering and we were making the best decision.  Now, back to the beginning...

In December of 1996, I started hinting that we should consider a dog again.  It had been years since we had one.  Yeah, we had Max (our 1 year old kitten) but a cat is not the same as a dog.  (I'll have to tell you Max's story of entering our lives  in another post...that, was a real tear jerker!)  Reason behind my 'hinting' was two-fold... bring happiness to the family and (selfishly) bring my husband out of his deep depression.  Hubby suffers from a neurological disorder that causes excruciating, constant pain (fka RSDS nka CRPS - that's right...yet another story!) and as the pain level increases and he cannot deal with it, so too does his depression.  Winter is a horrible season in our house with the shorter days.  I needed something that would distract my hubby and force him to think of something other than himself.  What better than a pup who needs training, feeding, taking out and exercise?  You see, Reggie was a saviour to me.  He saved my hubby and the entire family his unconditional love.

Knowing that Christmas is NOT a good time to get an animal (although Max's story will show you we did exactly that but again, there's reasoning and sadness around  his story...another time)  we waited until after the Christmas and New Year holidays to bring home an animal.

Hubby, for some reason, decided on a White Shepard as the dog of our future.  He found a local breeder, visited and fell in love with this particular pup.  White, furry, floppy ears and big paws, this pup was so cuddly and lovable.  Hubby decided he'd be a perfect fit in our home with 4 kids, 1 cat, a dad and mom.  Hubby hit the nail on the head... this pup fit us like a couture glove.

Mom went with hubby to pick up the pup.  It was mid-afternoon.  On their way home, they stopped with the pup at my place of employment so I could meet him.  OMG, I was in love at first sight and when they placed him on the floor and he came over to me and kissed me, there was no turning back.  This pup is perfect!

Then mom and hubby drove home.  We did not tell the kids ANYTHING.  We wanted it to be a surprise.  Hubby went in ahead of mom.  The two youngest kids were sitting at the dining room table doing their homework.  They looked and said, "Hi dad."  Then hubby opened the door again and mom entered with the pup in her arms and put him down.

Mom has always said the look on the kids faces and their eyes opened far and wide was PRICELESS.  They were smiling ear to ear yet confused... "Whose dog is that? Yours Nana?"  and dad said, "He's ours!"  The kids came running over to see the pup.

The yet unnamed pup had entered our home, lives, family and our hearts that afternoon.

This is getting long so I will do another post about how Reggie got his name.  If you like this part, you'll love that story too.