A New Puppy ?
How did we come to get Wilson? Well, it's a long story.......
On February 14th 2006 our beloved little Cairn Terrier Mollie died at the age of 14. She had to be 'put to sleep' at the vets. It was a very difficult decision to make but it was heartbreaking to watch her. Tests at the vets revealed that she had liver problems and after this diagnosis she deteriorated fast. We just knew we couldn't let her suffer any longer. Paul had the difficult job of taking her to the vets - I wasn't brave enough to go with him. He arrived home an hour later and it was all over. We were all devastated and we shed many tears over her death. In a strange way her death brought us all closer together - it was the first time we had experienced anything like this. She was a lovely, happy little dog and when I think back I don't think we ever appreciated her enough. We still miss her and when I see Cairns out and about my heart does a little leap and I have to do a double take to remind myself that it is not our little Moll.
CLICK HERE TO SEE A SHORT VIDEO OF MOLLIE
We were so upset we said that we couldn't possibly have any more dogs in the house, at least not for a while anyway. Over the next couple of weeks we came to realise that Mollie's death had left an unimaginable silence in the house. Jessica commented that the house didn't seem like a home anymore and that it was boring without a dog around. We began to think about getting another dog sooner rather than later......
What breed should we get? I would have liked a Westie, but it was thought that the breed was too similar to a Cairn. Jessica suggested a 'big' dog , something you could wrestle on the floor with etc ! We began to research breeds - we particularly liked Golden Retrievers. We registered with several breeders to let us know when puppies would be available. We even had names ready for our Golden Retriever puppy ! Paul carried on looking at other breeds as he wasn't 100% sure about a Goldie. He liked English Setters and English Springer Spaniels. We researched further into the breeds and liked the sound of the Springers. I contacted a few breeders, some of whom had puppies due. We spoke to Geoff Cunliffe (Fallenleaf) who explained in great detail the differences between the 'lines' of the breed (show and working). In the meantime I received an e-mail from Carol Downward via the English Springer Spaniel Club Website (whatever did we do before the internet?!) to inform me that a breeder - George Wright from Wirral - had a litter of puppies. I contacted him and we arranged to visit. Just to make double sure that we had chosen the right breed, we looked at our neighbour's Springer - George ( surname is Harrison, get it ? ) He is liver and white and we agreed that he was a fine looking dog and of course his owner, Joe said he was a lovely, faithful dog. We began to think about names which almost caused world war three in our house ! I wanted Dillon, Paul wanted Jack, Jessica wanted Oscar and Grace wanted Zack ! We couldn't decide. Paul went on a website that had the names of dogs that belonged to celebrities and shouted them out for us to decide which ones we liked. After a while, he shouted out 'Wilson' and we all immediately liked it (can't remember which celebrity had a dog called Wilson though !) We had our name at last ! People have since asked if we named him after the 'ball' in the Tom Hanks film 'Castaway', but this is not the case. Although, 'Wilson the ball' was Tom Hank's friend and Wilson is now our friend !
We met George and Jean Wright at their farm in Wirral, and viewed the puppies. They were adorable ! And so tiny ! They were four weeks old. The pups were liver and white; black and white and tri-colour. We had agreed beforehand that we wanted a male dog and we wanted a black and white one. The only males that were black and white were the tri-colour, just like their mum. George had chosen one of the puppies for himself so that left us with the puppy they had named 'Just Joey'. This threw us abit because we began to think that we should call him 'Joey' instead of 'Wilson' ; but general opinion was that Joey sounded abit like a budgie !!
We had to wait another 4 weeks before we could bring Wilson home, but we had taken some photographs of him at our visit so at least we could look at him. It was a very long 4 weeks ! But eventually on the 4th April we went to pick him up. We couldn't believe the difference in the puppies when we saw them, but we knew which one was Wilson straightaway. He was so handsome. We picked him up and said our goodbyes to George and Jean, who were lovely with us and gave us lots of information. Wilson was very good on the journey home and he settled into his new home immediately. We only had a couple of nights when he cried for us but we didn't 'give in' (this took nerves of steel !)
Wilson is now growing fast and is very strong and heavy - you know this when he decides to jump on you when you are watching television ! On the whole he is very good, but he can be ignorant, stubborn and he also has selective hearing ; but he is also very loving and affectionate and he gives us so much pleasure. He loves being with us, even when we are in the bathroom...! We are very proud of him !
Liz