on september 21, 2003, atlas came to live with me. oh happy happy day. i thought i'd take the opportunity to share the story of how i came to get him.
(by the way, this is not the story of how i went from not-a-dog-person to crazy-dog-person. that's a different story.)
so .. i knew i loved dogs. i knew i loved weimaraners. i knew i wanted my own weimaraner. the bad news was that i was sharing a house at the time and a dog wasn't possible - but i was scoping them out anyway. as luck would have it, a coworker's husband happened to work with the husband of someone who was co-breeding a litter. as more luck would have it, another coworker decided to get one of the puppies. i was envious, but was still in the place where i couldn't have a dog. (but oh, that puppy was adorable.)
i decided to console myself by hiking the inca trail (yes, my mind works in mysterious ways), signed up for a fall trek (it was spring), and paid my deposit. then i discovered that i was going to have surgery the same month as the hike and had to cancel. i was disappointed about the hike and not very excited and very nervous about the surgery. as i was lying around (moping no doubt) after calling to cancel, i happened to glance at the rental section of the newspaper and immediately decided that since i had this "spare money", i should use the opportunity to find a house to rent and get a dog!
as even more luck would have it, shortly after, a house went up for rent across the street from a good friend of mine. i loved the house and neighborhood, and the owners were fine with a puppy moving in too.
now i just needed the weimy.
but that was the hard part .. the puppies were gone from the previous litter and there were no other puppies looking for homes immediately (because of course i wasn't wanting to wait). i found the most adorable weimaraner puppy from the rescue organization but they seemed very unwilling to consider me as an owner (i think they weren't sure i knew what i was getting into and, in all fairness to them, i had no idea).
but then .. i heard that one of the puppies from the litter had gone back to the breeder and that, while she was considering keeping him, she might be willing to let him go - but only to the right owner! i called her and told her all about how much i loved weims and how much i wanted one and how i was willing to do anything to be a good weim owner.
i was convincing .. a few weekends later, i drove up to eureka to see him and to figure out if he was the right dog for me. i was pretty sure he was. the only problem i could see was that he was a show dog and i didn't want to show dogs, but i was trying to convince myself that it might be fun.
i knocked on the door. when lisa opened it, there were four weimy heads, barking and looking at me through the screen door. i saw the red collar on one, knew it was sammy (atlas' name at the time), looked into his eyes, and it was all over. yup, "i fell in love".
six years later, i love him more than ever. he is the best dog in the whole wide world - and i tell him daily how happy i am that he came to live with me and be my puppy.
