The day I got 2 puppies for Terence's birthday

Years ago... wow, it must be about 10 or 11 years ago now (really, can it be that long ago?) Terence really wanted a dog.  It had to either be a Beagle puppy or a Basset Hound puppy.  Not sure what it was, but those were the dogs he really wanted to consider. And because we lived in a smallish townhouse there was no way we could have a bigger dog than that (of course he didn't quite realise how big Basset Hounds actually become fully grown, but anyway...). 

And so I thought for his birthday we could get him a puppy.  I looked in the paper, phoned a whole bunch of people and both were rather hard to find except 1 lady had some Basset Hound puppies for sale.  She was about 100km away from where we lived at the time, but okay, that's manageable.  So I rang her up and told her I'd like to buy one of the puppies and that I would come through on the Saturday to come and have a look and take one.  All good and all organised. 

Of course I then started thinking that we really shouldn't just have one puppy because it would get lonely when we go out to work.  And so I told Terence that I really wanted a puppy too and it would be good for his puppy to have company.  So once again consulted the paper and phoned around. 

I really wanted a small kind of dog and when I saw they had some Miniature Pinchers for sale I knew that that's the puppy I wanted to get. 

So the Friday night we set off to go and have a look.  When we arrived they had the cutest little puppies.  A little "brother" and "sister".  And so I stood there looking at the two and tried to figure out which one of the two to take.  But I simply could not decide.  Because really - how could you possibly split up a "brother" and "sister"? After I managed to convince Terence why we simply had to take both we went home.  They were so cute!  No bigger than your hand.  10 Weeks old. 

Of course on the way home I thought to myself that that meant we were going to have 3 dogs all of a sudden and that wasn't quite what we planned, but it was too late to change our minds.

So the next (long awaited) morning arrived and before I got in the car to go and get Terence's puppy I rang the lady to let her know I was about to leave home and would be at her place in about an hour.  And this is what she said to me "I'm sorry all the puppies were sold in the week" - this after I specifically told her during the week that I planned to visit her on the Saturday.  What if I just went, drove for an hour and then to be told they were sold???  Sigh!  Poor Terence.  I then had to tell him that he wasn't going to have his puppy for his birthday...

And instead I ended up with these two for Terence's birthday:

Rudi on the left and Bambi on the right.

Rudi was a typical mommy's little boy.  Bambi was equally cute, but definitely the one "wearing the pants" in that relationship...  While she was able to jump down from the bed or from the couch, she could not jump onto it for some reason.  No idea why, but she never learned how.  They were also very much like brother and sister.  When I gave them their treats Rudi would instantly gobble his up and Bambi would then quietly watch until he is finished before starting to eat hers, barking and growling at Rudi almost as if saying "ha! I have a treat and you have nothing!". 

When we moved to New Zealand friends offered to take them from us.  We are so grateful because they would not have survived staying in quarantine for months on end.

We miss them, but we know they are happy and well settled (and really quite old by now) living with our friends.  If I'm ever able to get dogs again, I'd definitely go for Miniature Pinchers again!