Rufus becomes Rufus

It was a long eight weeks to have to wait until we could bring Rufus home. We did get to visit the puppies twice...but oh my, twice was not enough!! I would have been much happier with daily visits..but the two visits we had were wonderful. We saw the puppies when they were three weeks old and again when they were five weeks old. They were so warm and soft and cuddly. We had no idea which puppy was going to be Rufus when we visited them, so we cuddled them all.  Our breeder gives potential puppy parents a questionnaire to fill out and she does temperament tests on the pups before they go to their new homes.  Based on answers and puppy personality, she then matches the puppy and the parents she feels would be best together. I'm glad Vicki handles placing puppies this way...I couldn't have chosen one over the others. I noticed two of the boys were darker than the other one and I made a mental note to myself that I hoped we didn't get the lighter one because I liked the darker colour. Gotcha' Day was set for February 7th and we were to arrive at 11 a.m. On the Thursday before we were to go pick Rufus up, we received a phone call from Vicki. She had some news...uh oh!  She had noticed the puppy she really felt would be the best match for us sometimes had trouble getting his back legs under him to stand up on all fours. He "swam" a lot as he struggled to get up. She had taken him to a specialist that day to find out why and had been told that one of the bones in his rear right leg was a fraction shorter than the same bone in the left leg. The vet believed it would correct itself as he grew up but if it didn't there was a surgery that could be done when he was older. Then came the million dollar question...did we want to take a chance it would correct itself, or take one of the other puppies? Since we were the first to reserve a male, we got first "right of refusal". I hung up the phone and went to tell Steve what Vicki had said...and I prayed. I knew vet bills could be astronomical..did we really want to start off with a puppy that was less than perfect from the beginning? We decided in 30 seconds...we trusted Vicki's judgment...if she thought he was the right puppy for us, we would take our chances. Deep down we knew he'd be fine..we just knew.  I called Vicki back, told her we'd go with "Gimpy" and she promised to send a picture within a few minutes. Now it's time for you all to go.....awwwww! I checked my email a few minutes and this is what I found....

Can you guess which one is Rufus?