Exactly one year ago today, we made the painful-but-necessary decision to let Lilly go after a 693-day fight for her life. Our grief is better and totally NOT at the same time. Adding a puppy to our family didn’t magically make the grief disappear, but the other night, I realized how much more desperate I would feel without a new little canine friend at my side.
“So What Does Ginko Think of the New Puppy?” is probably the #1 question people asked us when we first adopted Clover from Blue Ridge Border Collie Rescue in Virginia. The short answer is this … He LOVES her. Truly. But, these photos tell the story a whole lot better than I can with words.
In the coming weeks, I’ll try to answer some of the top questions people ask about our new border collie puppy Clover. Today, I’ll explain how we went about choosing a name and why we picked Clover Lee Hawn.
Breath to Breath, a novel by Carrie Maloney, is not for the faint of heart, but it’s worth every tear shed and every moment of heartache. Breath to Breath tells the story of veterinarian Anna Dunlap, who finds herself in the impossible situation of working side by side at her veterinary hospital with an animal abuser.
Puppy COMES HOME! This is post #5 of 5 in the story of adopting a border collie puppy from 1,600 miles away >>>> The puppy’s journey home began Friday, September 12, when Beth and Dr. Beth met halfway between Beth’s dairy farm in Virginia and Dr. Beth’s home near Washington, DC. They sent me photos so that I knew the handoff was complete.
More of the story!!! Post #4 of 5 about how we managed to do a border collie puppy adoption from nearly 1,600 miles away. For all the fate and destiny, we experienced some glitches as well. At various turns, we worried the adoption would fall through:
Here, friends, is post #3 (of 5), telling the adoption story of border collie puppy, Clover. When we left off yesterday, I’d just hit SEND on an adoption application to Blue Ridge Border Collie Rescue >>>> You see, the electronic application didn’t just go to the rescue group’s adoption committee or leadership or just to her foster family, it went to EVERY single volunteer in the organization. Everyone saw everything I wrote. Everyone (I suspect) felt the emotion behind Lilly’s loss. Everyone got probably too intimate of a look into my life and into my heart.
This is the second of 5 posts, telling the adoption story of border collie puppy, Clover. In this installment, FATE intervenes. As I noted briefly in the announcement of her arrival, The Story of Clover begins with me seeing her photo in my Facebook feed. I read her adoption profile (where they called her Little Meg), and some way, some how, I knew in my heart she was born to be ours.
My apologies for the long delay between announcing the arrival of our new puppy September 13 and the official beginning of her story. It turns out that raising a puppy – especially a border collie puppy – is a full-time, full-contact sport that has consumed me.
This is the last post in the series spawned by that canine parvovirus outbreak in Massachusetts. So far we’ve talked about how outbreaks happen, the window of risk for puppies, and vaccine nonresponders. Today, let’s look at ways veterinary researchers and veterinarians can pinpoint when is the best time to begin vaccinating puppies. It’s pretty cool stuff … though, not new. It has been around since the 1960s.
