She had me at "Hello"

It has almost been five years since I met the lady I call Mom.  I had an fairly uneventful morning.  I had pounced on my brothers and sister all day.  I had chewed on an ear or two, pulled a few tails and bit a few necks.  You know, the usual four week old puppy bit.  I think my siblings perceived me to be something of a bully, but I like to think I was adventurous beyond my weeks.

The door opened to the kennel and being the curious thing that I was, I mosied over to the corner so I could see better.  A Lady had walked in.  She was just about the most beautiful thing these four week old puppy eyes had ever seen. . .  granted my experience was not great and I don't think that I had seen a Lady before.  She moved closer to me and the sweetest smell ever wafted to my nose.  It smelled sweet and fresh, like, uh like, cookies.  Yeah, cookies.

She stopped at the kennel next to mine checking out my Chocolate Labby Dabby cousins.  I heard her say that she was looking for a companion for her older dog.  A Chocolate Lab.  What was wrong with her.  Here I was a fine specimen of a Black Lab, ready, willing and able to help her older dog around the house.  So I started yipping, "Yo, Lady, Over Here!"  She wasn't listening and just kept looking at the Chocolate Labs.

I became impatient and yipped louder, "Lady!  OVER HERE!  You want ME!".  I crawled over my siblings and tumbled out of my "birthing box" onto the concrete.  I was shocked.  I had never ventured this far before and I didn't know what I had fallen onto.  I sat my butt down on cold concrete and looked up with my little puppy eyes and whimpered.

Then it happened.  I felt the first caress on my face, and the first sweet, gentle touch on my ears.  Then in a whisper, She spoke, "Hello, little boy."  I melted, right there, right then, my little legs wouldn't hold me and I went flat on the floor.

She reached down and lifted me into her hands for the first time.  My eyes met hers and in that instant I knew I had found "Mom".  I locked my little paws around her and and whispered, "I Love you, Mom".

I just knew I was going home with her.  I knew it.

She sat me down and turned around and, and, and she walked right out the door. . .

~runs back in, ears flopping~  You didn't think I would leave you hanging did you?  Never fear, I did go home with her when I was two weeks older, you know, more mature.  I have been with her ever since. . .   Spoiled and loved beyond measure.