So long story short (which I am terrible at but I thought hey maybe start there and see if it helps), I spent 2018 in a state of depression and by the end of it had the idea that getting a lap dog would help me to help myself.  I looked in area shelters and at various online listings but all the lap dogs were way out of my price range (or at the time I visited the shelters, non-existent – by a large margin).  In mid-January 2019, on a Sunday afternoon whim, I responded to a Craigslist ad for a litter of Dachshund mix puppies.  I had been hoping to find an adult dog but that had not panned out so what the heck.  I received a response from the seller that the mother was an 8 pound black Dachshund and the father was a Maltese.  This sounded kind of perfect.  I got three pictures of three puppies.  One was scruffy.  I was in love.

I drove in the dark for 3 hours (the only time my phone driving directions app has failed me) and finally got to the Wal-Mart parking lot where we had arranged to meet.  I gave her my cash, she gave me my puppy.  A relative in a second vehicle had followed the seller “because you know, it’s Craigslist” so I decided not to execute my sinister plan (sinister plan TBD).  Anyway my 5 and 1/2 week old puppy was the most precious two pound scruffball ever and I named her Willa.

First photo, in the car after pickup.

She slept in bed with me that night and the next morning we were playing and I felt joy.  It was like a light, faint but steady, had turned back on inside me.

Feisty whippersnapper.

Lap dog.

Willa and I bonded right away and over the next few months, we both grew – mine was more spiritual in nature but hers was literal.  And she kept growing.  Of course puppies do that but I guess I was anticipating growth something along the lines of Dachshund, not giraffe.

So long story short (d’oh!), here is Willa today.

She’s about 4 and 1/2 months old and A•P•P•A•R•E•N•T•L•Y, she is not a Dachshund/Maltese mix.  She is taller than Newt.

Had the seller represented the puppies for what they actually were (which is I don’t know what, guesses welcome), I would have never answered the ad, let alone bought the puppy.  And what a damn tragedy that would have been.  I never would have met Willa and I can’t imagine my life without her now.

Sometimes I call her Monkeyface, obviously.

Markings like a bird dog, coat like a terrier – whatever she is, she is loved.

♥

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