Day 2631

 I woke up at 7:30 because we were planning on leaving at 8:30.  About 8 Hooch came out to say that the breeder didn't want us to show up until 1.  Oh well.  I did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then we sat around talking and surfing until we left at 9:30.

It was 44 degrees and raining.  Perfect Oregon weather.  We took 290 to 281, 281 down to Bulverde, 46 over to Boerne and Bandera and then 173 to Hutto.  Bulverde is now a pretty big town, a couple of miles long.  Boerne has a lot of new suburbs.  Bandera and Hutto seem to be old small Texas towns.  The trip took until noon.  The rain had stopped and the sky had cleared by the time we got there.

We stopped in Hutto and had some really good BBQ.  That took about 45 minutes, so we got to the breeder a little bit early.

The place is amazing.  There's a lot of room to train dogs.  They have two large kennels for grown dogs and two good sized pens for puppies.  Everything was full.  Hooch was in hog heaven looking at the parents of the puppies he was looking at.  He spent a lot of time talking to the breeder about bloodlines and playing with puppies. Of course we played with the puppies, too.

All of the puppies in the outside pens were spoken for.  I was disappointed because I really liked one of them.  There was one more younger litter in the house.  We looked at all of them.  I was feeling pretty sad.  Given that we hadn't got a dog in Oregon, the Brittany people seemed like a bust, and no puppies were available here.  I resigned myself to no more dogs.

Hooch looked at the puppies inside and decided on one from the outside.  I was more disappointed because one of the inside puppies was a small female.  It was just right.  We were about to leave when I learned that it was for sale.  We bought it.  I had to make a second choice though in case another person claimed it.  I hope not.

The puppy won't be available for another 5 or 6 weeks.  That's OK.  We left about 4:30 with everyone feeling happy.

The drive home was faster than the one over because the traffic around Boerne and Bulverde was less.  It took longer though because we stopped in Bandera for frozen yogurt.  We also stopped in Dripping Springs for fuel and dinner at the pizza place.  We didn't get home until after 8.

Ellen and I don't agree on a name.  I want to call the dog Josie, for Josie Wales.  Ellen wants to call it Minnie, for Mini-me.  That's what the breeder calls it.  Hooch played an Austin Powers movie over his phone when we got back to convince me for Minnie.  It didn't convince me, but I'm going to lose anyway.