History - my husband's Shadow

I thought for once I might post a little bit of history about myself/my family. One of the things that has long been close to my heart are dogs, particularly dog rescue. When my husband and I first were engaged, we had decided that as soon as we had a house we would own dogs. He was raised with collies and so wanted another. I loved dogs in general, though I had some time ago fallen in love with the Newfoundland dog breed.

When I had the time I did research on the breeds, the dogs, breeders, anything I could. I wanted to make sure I did the right thing when the time came. Our first dog was Shadow (full name - Shadow's Southern Magic) who we purchased from a local breeder. I talked to many breeders before I finally chose the one we went with. We signed on our new home in May and as soon as we did, I called the breeder to talk. Around June she had a litter on the ground and all but two were spoken for. My husband's birthday was in August so I thought the perfect gift would be to put a deposit down on a puppy with this breeder for his birthday. I did, however, want him to meet the breeder and see her stock.

So, for his birthday I arranged a meeting with the breeder and told her what I was going to do. For my husband, I told him we were going to go look at his birthday gift. I didn't tell him more than that, though many of our friends took great pains to give him hints that really didn't help.

I picked him up from work and drove him a good way out of town to the breeders location. He only picked up on what was happening when we pulled into her driveway and he saw her sign out front. The INTENT had been to see the pups and adults and to put down a deposit on a puppy (he was convinced he had to have a sable and white, rough coat, female puppy). The only puppy available for adoption was a tri-color rough male puppy.

To say the least it was love at first sight and instead of putting down a deposit we came home with a puppy. Shadow turns 12 this year and the match is still perfect for the two.