Impossible to work

This is Henri. He is my puppy. Andy posted this pic to the baby animal livejournal community. Want to hear what people had to say?

I got forwarded an email this afternoon informing me that a coworker of a friend has put this very picture of my dog on her computer’s desktop. She has met neither me nor the puppy. I got a text message from another friend informing me that my puppy is the desktop of the Executive Director of a certain independent performance space located in the vicinity of Wrigley Field. That, gentle reader, is the power of motherfuckin’ cuteness.

If the above picture isn’t enough, here’s the flickr photoset (more photos to come).

How did this particular bundle of cuteness make his way into my life? Why I’m glad you asked. It all started about a year ago when I decided that I needed a dog. Around Christmas I met my friend Ben’s bulldog Zeus (for the first time since he was a puppy). I instantly fell in love with the big pile of slobber, snort, and gas. It was at this point that I decided I needed an English Bulldog of my very own. I started saving up and decided to get one in Oklahoma with Ben’s help. So this week, Ben and I went to look at puppies.

The first litter we met was only 2 weeks old. Since I can’t take the dog to my current apartment, it seemed great. Ben and his wife Amber had already offered to watch the puppy until I could move it up to my new dog-friendly apartment in Chicago. This litter wouldn’t be ready to take home til right before my lease ended. Result! But the breeder was a bit on the crazy side of things. She breeds show dogs, and her dogs are great (really, lots of champs in the pedigree) but they are also very expensive. She’s the sort of breeder that uses a special table for the dam to breast feed. I couldn’t possibly have found a better breeder, but her dogs were entirely too expensive for me.

Next step? Check the newspaper. I know you’re not supposed to buy a dog from the paper, but this particular breeder seemed to be stuck with three puppies (if he develops a terrible disease or randomly dies, I guess I will have learned my lesson the hard way). I thought, “Let’s go see this one white male she has.” So Ben, his two-year-old daughter, and I went all the way up to what is technically Claremore (according to the AKC registration form) to check this little guy out.

What can I say? I fell in love instantly. He ambled up to me (on the beautiful stone porch of a rather old farm house surrounded by an amazing dry stack fence dating back to the 1920s or 30s) and then more or less collapsed at my feet. Ben took a look at him and said he was okay (but I had already decided to take him home). So I told the breeder I’d be back the next day, cash in hand.

But oh how difficult it was to get that cash into my hands. It was after 5 when I saw the puppy, so the banks were already closed. No biggie, I’d just go to the bank in the morning. Except that my bank’s closest branch is in Joplin, MO (about an hour and a half northeast of Tulsa). Solution: I’d drive to Joplin first thing in the morning, get the money, return to Tulsa, pick up Ben and his daughter, drive to Claremore (about 30 minutes driving time to get to this country home), get the dog and then go home, with one final stop at the pet shop.

Phew, something like 300 miles in one day, and a lot of money spent. A lot. I spent $200 at the pet store alone”^a1a”. All that driving was great (since I love to drive) and the puppy is beyond cute. His name is Henri Napoleon and he weighs 14.6 lbs (that’s a whole stone and then some!) as of this morning.

You will love him, or else he will drool on you.

Actually, he’ll drool on you anyway.

1. I’d like to say that while I generally dislike large chain stores, the Petsmart I went to here in Tulsa, near the Promenade, was great. The manager came and introduced himself right after we came in. Now that’s some service. Of course, I was walking in with a man who owns 3 dogs (one bulldog, one mastiff, one terrier mix) and spends LOTS of money there every month. So maybe I just lucked out on service due to association. Still, awesome people work at that big box pet store. aaa