Here is a little bit about our Mr. Colby.
He came into our lives in a very surreptitious manner. When we moved we were hoping to get a dog, however, it took us a bit to get the OK from our new landlords. One night I came home from class and got a text message from our landlord asking me if i would come talk to them. My first thought was, "great what did I do wrong." When I went upstairs to talk to them they asked me what I was planning to get my wife for Christmas. I told them that I had been thinking cloths and stuff like that. Did I mention that my landlord is my brother and his wife? Well after we talked for a bit my Sister-in-law, Lani, said that I should get Melanie a dog. At first I was shocked, I had no idea what to say. So from that moment on, my mind was spinning and I knew what I had to do.
I think that I forgot to mention as well that at this point it was maybe a week and a half before Christmas? Yes, I understand that I am a procrastinator but it is what it is. Add to that I don't have the best track record for Christmas presents. For our first Christmas I bought my wife a gym membership. My thinking was that she and I could go together and it would be something we could do together. That was a mistake! Three months later we had canceled the membership. To make matters worse, she bought me a movie iPod... So you can see how I didn't start out on the best foot with the whole present thing.
With that tangent out of the way and in mind, I set out on my quest for "The greatest present of all time!" Melanie had always said that if she were to get a puppy she would go and see John at Critters in Taylorsville 4700 S. and about 3200 W. (gotta get that plug in.) So that is what I did, one day on my lunch break I stopped by John's place to introduce myself. We talked for a bit and discussed the possibilities of getting a puppy from him. I looked at what he had there in his shop and he told me that if I didn't like what I saw there, he had another store on 9200 S. 700 E. (another plug). So I decided that I would take a look at what he had out there, (Closer to my house).
I stopped by to see the other store where Sue is the manager within the next few days. When I got there she introduced me to two Shih Tzu puppies. One was a black and white female, the other was a cream and white male. Both of them were very playful and happy. I spent about 15 minutes with them and decided that I would like the male because us guys need to stick together. I paid the money and went home happy.
The night that I left the pet store it was the Friday before Christmas so that way my super "observant" bank teller wife would not see it come through on the credit card till she got to work the day after Christmas. Now that I had the puppy, I needed all of the other stuff to go with it. I strapped on my boots and headed to Wal-Mart. I got the kennel, pillow, food, water dishes, and leash. That was that for Wal-Mart. I didn't like the leashes and the collars at Wal-Mart so I headed to Pet's Mart. I found a great leather collar and a cool electric blue leash to hang onto the little fur ball while I was there I picked out a toy and a puppy training book. Finally the shopping was done.
Now as you can imagine giving a live animal as a gift is a bit difficult. So to get around this problem I had to do some extra planning. So the plan was, that I would let the puppy stay at the pet store till I could pick him up on Christmas Eve. The next obstacle I had was actually "giving" the gift. You can't just throw a dog in a box and leave it under the tree all night. I had talked to my parents before hand to make sure that it would be OK to let the puppy stay at their house Christmas Eve. With that taken care of I took all of my purchases to their house. As difficult as that all sounds that was the easy part.
The biggest problem was going to be keeping the secret from my wife. She does not like surprises. I on the other hand I love to surprise people, especially my wife! So that became a large problem.
When I came home from all of my shopping I had a huge grin on my face and I could barely contain my excitement.
It was great! My wife kept asking me what it was. then she began begging me to know what she was going to get for Christmas. That night I had a bit of a time getting to sleep.
The next day I went to the pet store with my brother and mom so that I could get my picture taken with the puppy He was so small and furry. It was great. Then I got a phone call that threw a monkey wrench into my plans. You see while I was gone my wife got ambitious and decided to do the laundry. While she was doing that, the business card from the pet store fell out of my pocket and she called me to ask why I had John's card. That is when I had to do something that I do not make a habit of, I lied to my wife. I told her that I don't know why I had it and that I must have just picked it up somewhere. Then when I got home she came bounding up to me and hugged me, (obviously I had not been very convincing on the phone). She told me that she hopes that I picked out a cute one. Then I did it again, I lied, I looked my wife straight in the face and told her that I didn't want her to get her hopes up because she was not going to get a puppy for Christmas. At that point I saw her face drop and her eyes tear up. She got her hopes up so much that she cried for about a half hour. I felt terrible about that but I was determined to make it a surprise. On the way home I stopped to get a box to give the "gift" in. I had decided that I would put a picture of myself and the puppy, a dog toy, the puppy training book, leash, and collar in the box. Then I would take her to my parent's house to pick up the puppy. We would have to do this because we were going to spend the night at Melanie's parent's house. When I brought the box home it was nothing very spectacular. It was maybe a box that was 6"x8"x4". That was another thing that made her go crazy, especially when I told Melanie that her entire Christmas present would fit comfortably inside the box. Again she was beside herself that it was all that she was getting. So next time you hear the phrase, "It's the thought that counts." Don't believe it. I had put a ton of thought into this gift and it hadn't gotten me much.
Christmas Eve had finally come and it was time for me to pick up the puppy and take him to my parent's house. He was just happy to jump into my arms and come in the car with me. When we got to my parent's he needed a bath, so I put him in the tub and hosed him down. It didn't take too long. There wasn't much of him to be washed. (he was so small) I got him all toweled off and blow dried. I handed him off to my family and told him that I would see him tomorrow.
I drove home and got everything ready to go over to the in-laws for the night. I took my little box and helped my wife out with all of her gifts that she had bought for me. The only thing that I heard all night was "What is my present?", "Why don't you just tell me what it is?", and "Please tell me!" By the end of the night I was mentally exhausted from the interrogation.
I had planned to give my wife the little gift at her parent's and then take her to my parent's to take pick up the puppy. The only cheviot was that because I had so many people helping me with this gift everyone wanted to be there when she got the puppy. So I had to ask my wife that night if she wanted to go over to my parents before 10 A.M. or after 4 P.M. cause those were the only times that everyone could be there. My wife thought that this was odd, that I would ask her such a question. Melanie decided on the later time because she was planning to be at her parent's till Noon. That was fine with me but I told her that all that could change when she opened her gift. I didn't tell her anything else. When we went to sleep that night I was glad that everything would be over in a little more than 10 hours.
The morning came and we all took turns opening gifts. I was a bit selfish and made my wife wait till the end to open her gift. I did this for a few reasons, one: I just wanted her to stay in suspense for that much longer and two: I knew that everything would be dropped and she would want to go and get the puppy.
So the time finally came and I handed my wife the small box and a card that said "I know that this process has been hard on you but please know that this gift was selected with all the love that I possess." At that point the tears started to stream down my wife's face. She then opened the box and a smile light up her face as she pulled the picture of Colby and I out of the box and shyly proclaimed, "It's a puppy." She looked up at me and said something like "So, where is it?" I told her that he was at my parent's waiting for her to pick him up. She asked if we could go get him and I told her that we would get him when we went over there after 4 P.M. Then what I knew would happen, happened, she said let's go get him NOW. We told everyone that we would be back shortly.
On the way over we had to decide on a name. Up to this point I, and everyone else, had just called him "Dog" because I wanted Melanie to name him. We thought of a few names. We finally settled on Colby. At the time we were listening to a Colbie Callet CD so go figure we have a boy dog named after a girl.
That is the whole story of how Colby came to be. Sorry if it was long, uninteresting, and boring but I had to write it down before I forgot all of the details, as it is I'm sure that I left out most of them already with it having been five months ago but I did what I could. Enjoy it or don't.
Look at how adorable and quite the character he is! His favorite treat is a little bit of Peanut Butter on anything...
Don't worry he can see these days cause he got a MAJOR haircut that took about 4 hours, but it was well worth it!
