On a hot August day, I got out of the car after long drive with my dad. We walked up to a big house and knocked on the front door. A nice forty-something woman answered the door and said, “You must be Gretchen ‘s husband and daughter, do you want to see the puppies?” She led us to her garage where there were two fenced in areas. In each area there was a crate with a mother dog and her puppies. One litter of 8 puppies were a week and the other litter of 10 puppies was only a day old. Sharon, the breeder, showed us one puppy from each litter. She gave my dad the older puppy and handed me the newborn puppy. He fit into both my hands and laid there sleeping. He couldn’t see or hear  me because his eyes and ears were not working yet. Daddy and I talked for awhile to decide which to puppy to pick. This was a really hard choice, because, we had to pick a dog that had the right markings and was it going to be a good dog for our family? We finally decided that the newborn was the cuter puppy.

       Sharon said, “He is a good choice, but I must warn you that he may die. Sometimes newborn puppies die because they are too small and weak or their mother can accidentally lay on them. When this happens they can suffocate.  But, I will do my best to keep him safe.”, “Oh!”I said  I didn’t expect to hear this. How could my little puppy die? I had fallen in love with him already. I could picture him living at my house and snuggling on the couch with me. I asked Sharon how she would keep him safe. She said, “I have hired a dog sitter who will watch the puppies all day and my family will watch them all night. Last year one of the puppies was smothered by the mother and we were very sad.”

      I drove home with my dad and worried about my little puppy. Would he be safe? Would I ever see him again? Daddy and I made a list of names on our way home. When we got home we told Mom John all about the puppy. We decided on the name Chip since he looked like a chocolate chip. We told Mom about the danger of the puppy being smothered by his mother. A few days went by and we didn’t hear anything. I started to wonder if Chip was okay. Would she she call if he died or wait until our next visit?

    A week later Sharon called to tell us Chip was doing fine and we could visit any time. The dog sitter kept the mother and puppies safe while puppies grew big to enough survive if their mother laid on top of them. I was so relieved and wanted to visit him right away!

       When I returned on September 22, 2013, on a chilly day in Havre De Grace in Maryland, my best friend Mica D. and  I were looking through a fenced in area. It was big enough to comfortably hold at least 3 grown men. The bottom of the area was covered in cedar chips and the was a bigger version of a rabbit hutch. I wondered if there were still 10 puppies. If one was missing, would Chip be there. All of the sudden 10 rolly-poly little puppies came tumbling out of the entrance of the rabbit hutch! All of the puppies came up to Mica and I and looked up at us with curiosity because they had just opened their eyes. Almost all of the puppies were about a month old and they were still used to walking so, they were a bit wobbly on their feet. Each puppy had different markings and colors. Most were a chocolate brown with splotches of white all over their small bodies. The puppies wriggled with joy as Mica and I fawned over them.

    Then we both  heard footsteps behind us, and just as we looked behind us, we saw that my seven year old brother John was running towards the cage with a look of pure glee upon his face, followed by my mom, and right on her tail was one of the breeders dogs Brownie who was the older sister of the litter, and the breeder, Sharon, walked up to us.  Sharon politely said “Excuse me” and slipped into the cage to give each of us a puppy to hold. I was handed Chip a.k.a puppy Number Eight which in the next month or so he would be in the car with me and my family. That is because my family is adopting  him and will bring him back to our house in Alexandria. The puppy that was handed to Mica, was a puppy with no name and no adoptive family to go to yet, so he went by puppy Number Two. The two boys were from the same mother. I sat down in a plastic lawn chair nearby with tiny Chip in my arms.

My brother John came up to me and, of course, started to complain. “ I wanna hold him!!!!!” he whined, “ Mooooom! Tell Grace to give Chip to meeee!” With that statement he burst into tears from the frustration. “John,” my mom said gently, “ go play with Brownie. She wants to play fetch with you!”. “Really?” he said sniffing. “Yeah, really.” she reassured him. “Okay!” he said his face brightening, and with that he ran off to play with Brownie. I was secretly relieved because I didn’t want John to accidentally drop Chip.

It was a chilly that day so Chip started to shiver in my arms. The puppy in Mica’s arms was doing the same.  I was cold too and I had left my jacket in my mom’s car. “Mom!” I yelled, “Can you go get my coat from the car?” Mom replied, “Yes! Be right back!” and disappeared to the front of the house where Sharon lived. After a couple minutes, Mom appeared with my rainbow striped coat in hand. “Here.” she said and handed me the fuzzy multicolored coat. “Thanks.” I said as I handed Chip to Mom for a moment so I could put the coat on. Then, all of the sudden I had an idea. I took the puppy back from Mom and placed the shivering pup inside and zipped the jacket up halfway. Mica saw what I was doing and did the same with her red and white Holster jacket. Both pups settled in immediately and fell asleep.I relaxed and sat back in the chair with a sigh. As I embraced the puppy’s tiny warm body, I knew that he was the perfect puppy for me.