More Backstory...

Shortly after Lula died, I sent an e-mail to a breeder in Australia whose line of MBTs can be found somewhere in almost every pedigree around the world.  She's been in the breed for over thirty years, has bred countless champions, and it's not exaggerating to say that she can be credited with helping to actually bring the breed to her country.  I wrote and told her what had happened with Lula and how heartbroken I was, and told her how much I admired her work in the breed.  I even included several photos of Lula and I, to break the ice a little.   I asked her if she would ever consider sending me a puppy, and under what circumstances she might do so.  Honestly, I didn't expect to hear back from her...and when several weeks went by without a response, I figured she either read what I wrote and then just deleted it, or didn't recognize the sender and didn't read it at all.  So I put it out of my mind, knowing that K would likely have a litter or two later this year, and I resigned myself to a long wait.

Then, about a month after I wrote to her, an e-mail from the Australia breeder (call her M) arrived, and to my surprise, it was incredibly warm and deeply sympathetic.  I wish I had saved it, because it made me cry a little, but I do remember the the most important part, which said "of COURSE I will send you a puppy; I would love for you to have one".  She said that she had two females available and that she would send photos shortly.  

This news was incredibly exciting, but I was also really nervous...buying a puppy based on photos alone is tricky enough when you know what you are doing, but all I see when I look at a photo of any MBT is an adorable dog.  I didn't (I'm getting better fast!) have an eye for the "confirmation" of a bullie...and since I was hoping to show my next dog, I needed some help.  But now it gets tricky...how do I approach K and ask her to help me buy a puppy from someone else?  K had already told me that it wouldn't hurt her feelings if I looked at another breeder...she knew how much I missed Lula and wanted me to be happy.  But still, after all the help she has given me and since I really treasure our friendship, I wasn't sure if I could ask her.  

I debated about it for a while, and then one day when we were talking, I started skirting around the issue...I mentioned that I had been looking at pedigrees and noticed M's kennel name all over the place in US lines, and asked what she thought about it.  To my utter shock, K said, "M is a friend of mine, she's a really great lady and breeds gorgeous dogs.  I'll help you talk to her if you want."  It was then that I confessed that I had actually written M a letter several weeks back and had just received a response, so that night, K wrote to M, told her all about me and Lula, and told M that I could absolutely be trusted with one of her puppies.  K also told M that I was interested in showing, and asked her to keep that in mind when she recommended one of her pups to me.  

Shortly afterward, M sent photos of the two females that she had available...an all white girl and a little brindle girl.  However, she then decided that the white girl was more of a pet quality puppy and let her go to a nice home.  And then because the brindle girl was nearly 12 weeks old, she decided that she really needed to be place as well, and let her go to a nice couple near her home.  I wasn't really disappointed though, because neither K nor I were completely sold on that brindle girl, and we decided to wait for the next litters.  Around this time, K also decided that importing a puppy for herself would help her improve her bloodlines, so now we were both looking at M's next litters.  K and I decided that we didn't want pups from the same litter, so that we could possibly cross breed between us in a few years if we wanted to.  

M began sending us photos of two different litters...and of  the three females in the litter I was looking at, I was very drawn to one of  the brindle girls (there were two brindle and one white).  However M said that she was going to keep one of them (even at one week old, their heads looked incredible), so I refused to get attached until she told me which one I couldn't have.  When they were about six weeks old, M sent more photos, along with the happy news that she was keeping the white girl and hoped that I would take the brindle (the one that I wanted!).  She also told me that even though she chose to keep the white girl, she felt that the brindle girl had the edge over her and was the pick puppy in the litter.  I wrote her immediately and told her that the brindle was the girl I'd had my eye on the entire time, and I would certainly take her!