A Puppy for Christmas

My daughter Clara has been wanting to become a Guide Dog Puppy Raiser. She has been attending training classes and studying the training manual. She has written papers for school and volunteers at the Guide Dog campus in San Rafael. We told them we were ready to start puppy-sitting (the first step to getting a puppy of our own to raise).

And then the Guide Dog people came to inspect our house, and they decided that we weren't a good fit because our current dogs would not be good role models for a guide dog pup. They bark too much, and Aria was afraid of the two dogs they brought over. So, it turned out that we were out of the Guide Dog Puppy Raising business. . . .  and Clara was crushed. She had worked so hard, and her heart was truly broken..

After a few weeks of mourning her lost dream, she began asking if she could just get a regular puppy. My immediate reaction was "No!" I didn't want to get a puppy that would require a 10-15 year commitment. But, she was persistent and my husband Paul pointed out that we had been planning on taking on the puppy responsibility. 

So I gave Clara a to-do list of conditions to be met, including putting together a chart of responsibilities for dog care and finding a rescue dog, even though she wanted a lab puppy.

And she met every one of the conditions. So, meet Luna, Clara's Christmas puppy - a 7 week old yellow lab. There's going to be a lot less sleep over the next few weeks, but I think we've made the right decision. 

She couldn't be happier, even though she's going to be getting up at 3:00 a.m. to let her dog out!  Merry Christmas Clara.