Bitter Sweet Day

We took a drive to Wilcoxx (4 hrs south of Phoenix) yesterday to see Bailey's breeder and meet her sister, Twilight. Twilight is about 3 years younger than Bailey and shares the same mom. She had a litter of four puppies 4 weeks ago - 3 females and one male. The breeder is keeping the darkest female and since Joe and I are looking for a girl pup, we had two to choose from. What a challenge!! They were both so very cute and seemed to have similar personalities. The red collared puppy liked to snuggle and crawled on my lap twice for a nap. She also rested her head (just as Bailey does) on my arm. The black collared pup was fun to watch - especially when she did a tuck and roll down the hill. After nearly 2 hours, we decided to take the collars off and the breeder marked the inside ear (red on one - black on the other) to know who was who. We played a bit then set them side by side for a race to see who would come to us first. The pup with the black dot in her ear came running so she is now our little Basil. What an ordeal! I wanted them both, but Joe shot me down. :(

This comes to both of us as a very bitter sweet day. Our hearts are breaking for Bailey knowing that she has such limited time left. We would give anything to keep her with us and as much as others would be opposed, I would pay a boatload to have her cloned. No dog, no person, no one thing will ever be able to replace Bailey's place in my heart. I will certainly love Basil and any other animal that enters my life, but it will never be the same.

I have to admit, I've had a lot of guilt lately as I know Bocci is not getting much attention. The thing with Bocci, though, is she does not crave attention like Bailey. The most important thing to Bocci is food - and while we laugh and lovingly call her "slim" - it truly is all she thinks about. During the day, Bocci is outside or tucked in a corner and doesn't interact a ton...unless she hears someone in the kitchen. Bailey, on the other hand, is by my side 100% of the time. If I move to the laundry room to change a load...there she is...Perhaps that is why I love her so much - we are each other's favorite thing. :)

Baileyism
While some will argue otherwise, I think dogs have a fantastic memory. Bailey knows the way to the house we are building, grandma's place, the park, etc. Whenever we get close to any of her favorite hangouts, she gets this incredibly high-pitched whimper. Cracks me up every time.

Here is a picture of Bailey and her new little sister, Basil.