One year ago today...

A year ago today, I received not one, but two emails that would change my life drastically.  We'd just received permission from our landlord to get a dog and I'd been in touch with an Aussie breeder about three hours north of us.

The first email came just before noon on the sixth, bearing the following news: Angel just had her babies this morning...5 beautiful red babies!  We have 2 red tris and 3 red merles..all are gorgeous! 

Unfortunately, the pups were a little out of our price range, and I was gearing up to tell George that I didn't mind taking on some work to cover what was over our budget when I received a second email at about 3:30.

Well, Angel has finished having her pups...I think :)  We have 7 babies!  We expected only 5 so it was a surprise :)  One of the pups is a mis mark..meaning it has too much white on its head.  It has no effect on health or sight or hearing, as a pup with similar markings might have from a merle to merle breeding.  This was a merle to tri breeding and is not a problem situation.  He is a beautiful red merle with a big white collar and blaze, but the blaze goes too wide and surrounds the eye on one side.

This was the pup she offered to me, because she knew I wasn't looking for a show dog, and she knew we had some budget restrictions.  This was the picture she sent a few hours later:

And this was the face I fell in love with:

Darwin came to us two months later, and I cannot begin to express the joy he's brought us in such a short time.  I've learned so much about dogs (and Aussies in particular!) in that time.  Yes, there were some trials and tribulations ("Leave it! Leave it!  FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE, LEAVE IT!"), and there were some casualties in the Great War of Puppy Teething.  There have been items destroyed (one PSP game, one $20 bill, one Bluetooth headset, one fuzzy slipper, countless plush toys), and there are still challenges we have to overcome.  But the important thing is this:  No day passes without laughter, courtesy of my little clown.  And every day I am thankful for that unexpectedly large litter, and the unexpected mismark that came with it.

( Mem'ries... light the corners of my miiiind, misty watercolor mem'ries... (image heavy under the cut!!) )

Happy Birthday, little guy.