Some of you noticed that Emmy became Mr. Ems and discreetly asked “how?”
These pups were brought into our home for Josh. He had lost almost all his friends that he spoke with on the phone and we knew he needed more than Mom and Dad. We live in a condo that does not allow pets, but there was a small window where pets were allowed.
One day I was out with Josh’s big brother, George, and we drove by a pet store. (I know… puppy mill and all that, but at that time I did not know about all that) Anyway, we walked in and in this huge warehouse room… there must have been over fifty pups… all in nice large cages.
But, everyone one of them was yipping up a storm… Now we live in a condo! Yipping would be a no, no!
In one cage against the back wall was a small fluffy white “very quiet” puppy… quiet amidst this cacophony of yipping and barking. We walked over and he looked up, came over to the edge and stood up quietly asking, “Will you pick me up?”
When I picked him up he snuggled into my arms and didn’t squirm a bit. Sigh… a Chinese Crested Powder Puff… I had never heard of the “Powder Puff” though I knew about Chinese Crested dogs. We read the description on the wall about them… learned they were fairly small dogs… We went back to the cage and set the puppy down. He just looked up at us with his big black eyes and asked, “Did I do something wrong?” But, never barked or whimpered. I was a goner!
I asked the clerk if they could hold the pup while I spoke with my husband since he did not know I had been looking and to walk in the door with a pup with no warning might be a little much. The clerk said they could not hold the pup. I had to trust that if we were supposed to have this puppy, he would be there if Scott said yes.
So I called Scott, told him we needed to discuss something without Josh knowing we were discussing it.
“Okay,” he said hesitantly.
As I told him about the puppy George was driving me home. Scott looked up Chinese Crested Powder Puffs online and thought they looked sweet. But, I actually arrived home with no decision. George dropped me off and my hopes were dying we would rescue this sweet puppy.
But, once upstairs and explaining in greater detail how this puppy was the exception to the rule among all the other puppies, he agreed it was a good idea.
I called George and bless his heart he turned right around and came back to pick me up. We headed back to the pet store and picked up this quiet gentle puppy
Josh was thrilled! He couldn’t cuddle him enough. He wanted to name him Happy after a pup I had had as a girl. I told him he had a little brother… But, he said, “Mom, I want a sister!”
Gently, Scott and I tried to explain Happy was a boy, but he held firm. Now Josh requested very little… and rarely pushed an issue, but sister was important to him. So what harm would be done? Happy wouldn’t care… so “he” became “she”…
When Emmy joined our family… and we knew she was a “he” we tried giving her a boy’s name. Josh wanted her called Emmy… so we had another girl!
But, Josh is gone. These are wonderful male dogs so we are attempting to give them back their true identity.
We know there was a boy called “Sue”, but we find it hard to think of Emmy as a boy’s name… therefore we changed it slightly to Mr. Ems… Hope that clears up our gender identity questions…
Update from shot: By last night Mr. Ems was back to his playful self…
