Cocker Spaniel Palace

Well, here I go! This blog spot is going to be about (mostly) my adorable fur babies. I will have other tidbits of information from time to time, like my favorite websites (digitaldesignden), current issues and so forth, but on to the reason I'm starting this.

On a snowy March Saturday in 2000 my mother wanted to drive 45 miles to look at Cocker Spaniel puppies. When we arrived at this place I had no idea how in a two week period my life would change. I helped mom pick out an adorable little black and tan girlie. She was all wiggles and kisses and it was love at first sight. Mom took her home and proceeded to spoil her rotten and every evening after work I would go by her apartment and spoil her even more. Her name is Punkin (hence the name Punkinsmom). Well, after two weeks had gone by my mother called me at work and told me that every time I left to go home, Punkin would sit at the door and howl for me, so she decided Punkin should come home to live with Phil (my hubby) and I. That was over 8 years ago and since then we have increased the size of our little puppy family.

Dusty came to live with us in 2005 after, once again, mom purchased him from a breeder that was 60 miles away. He is a gorgeous white and tan parti color who is still nothing but wiggles. My hubby adores him. He had to be taken from his mother when he was just 4 weeks old, mom had him for a little over a week then he came home with us because mom couldn't handle his roudiness. He's a rough and tough little guy. So since he was 5 weeks old he has been with us.
One stormy evening he was sitting on my lap and a clap of thunder startled him. He jumped straight up in the air and landed on Punkin. He injured her back and broke her knee. I was brokenhearted because I was afraid my little beauty was going to have to be put down but $5000 and over 12 months of recuperation and you would never know she ever had any injuries.

So, mom is to blame so far for two of our babies but you will learn that we also blame her for our third.

We were taking my mother house hunting. She was looking for a new property to buy and as we turned onto a busy 5 lane road we saw all sorts of brake lights and backed up traffic! All of a sudden, this little black streak came running down the center lane. My husband and I took one look at each other, he pulled over jumped out of the SUV and literally crawled on his hands and knees in the middle of all that traffic to catch this little girl. She was in such deplorable condition you couldn't tell what she was other than a dog. We took her to our home and kept her separated from the other two for 24 hours. The next day I gave her a bath, actually about 3 baths to get rid of the filth and fleas she was carrying. I trimmed her hair and brushed her till she was shiny and got rid of all the mats in her coat that was keeping her from moving freely. We advertised to try to find her owners. We would have been very reluctant to return her to them if they appeared due to her poor condition, but we felt we had to try. After a week we took her to our vet and discovered she was a miniature Cocker Spaniel, approximately six months old, pregnant and suffered from malnutrition, we also found the breeder through DNA testing. She was named Sadie and she has been with us since 9/10/2005, she's also known as Sadie-bug. If we had not been house hunting we would never have found this sweet little girl. She is black with white on her chest and her feet look like she stepped in white paint.

So, my mother is to blame for this love affair with Cocker Spaniels but in all fairness, we have always had Cocker Spaniels, Candy, Honey and Lady preceded Punkin (SweetPea), Dusty(Doodle and Georgie) and Sadie (Sadie-bug) since our marriage in 1969. As a child I remember having several Cocker Spaniels and my husband's family used to breed them.

The only other dogs I've ever lived with was Teri McKay (my son's doberman) and a Pekinese named Crumby given to us by my sister in law. We couldn't keep Crumby at the time due to where we lived so my grandparents took her and gave her a good home. She was a great little dog for them.

So, now you know where the name Punkinsmom comes from and how we came to share our home with 3 adorable fur babies.