Tagged

I have been tagged by Lisa to tell how Gia, the mother of my last two litters, came into my life. In 2003, the first time I had heard about the litter that Gia came from was when my friend and fellow breeder Barb Allison and I were traveling to a dog show. Barb received a call on her cell phone from another fellow breeder that had just whelped a new litter from a very sweet Dal named Sweetie. Barb's Garrett was the daddy. That breeder was Jeff Gillespie and he was describing what he was seeing in the litter. The one little female he described as being a spitten image of her mother. I said, "that one's mine". Of course I knew I couldn't have one as I limit myself to three dogs and at that time I had three. Weeks went by and when those pups turned eight weeks, Barb and I headed to a parking lot that was half way between where we lived and where Jeff lived. Jeff was bringing a couple of puppies for Barb to choose from. Jeff got this funny looking little darkly marked puppy, that had a big sore on her head, out of his van (Gia, known to Jeff as Girl Friend). He also got out a lovely lightly marked female that had some missing eye trim. We let the puppies run around on the parking lot as we were trying to see who might have the best movement. I could not take my eyes off of Girl Friend as she flew around that lot. Barb was more inclined to take the prettier open marked puppy but she asked my opinion. I pointed to Girl Friend and said, "THAT ONE". Barb hesitated but finally gave in and we gathered up little Girl Friend and headed home. Barb soon renamed her funny little puppy Gia. In the coming weeks I ended up placing my youngest female Envy with my granddaughter, who had loved her from the day she was born. I then was down to two dogs. Weeks went by and Barb was heading to a show for the weekend. I was not going to that show so I offered to take care of four month old Gia while she was away. I brought Gia into my home for the first time and we all immediately fell in love with her. The weekend ended and I took Gia back to Barb's house. I was telling Barb how much we loved that sweet little puppy and she said, "do you want her?" I was stunned, but my answer was a resounding YES. I gathered up my sweet, funny looking little girl and headed home. Gia has been such a wonderful blessing in our home and has produced 22 lovely puppies for us, including our beloved Gage. I thank Barb for all that she has taught me about showing and breeding but most of all, for sharing this sweet girl with me. I now tag Barb to tell us about Gia's daddy Garrett and what he means to her.