We have two, needing three . . .

A year went by pretty quickly without much of anything happening. Since we were waiting for dogs to grow there really wasn't much else to do but go to school. But as the year came into it's waning quarter we hit some snags.

The first was our Son (Jackson) growing into his most terrible eighteenth year. I won't go into this much but to say that he ended the year living on someone else's couch. And as the year came to a close, and I began looking for a male to complete step one, of step one, of our sketchy plan, I got news that I had a throat cancer growing in my tonsil.

Before anyone starts feeling badly about this news let me tell the ending first:
I had surgery, it was bad. My son straightened up and came home, this was good. I lost much of my clear voice and so dropped the law school idea, this was bad. But I never regretted it so far, graduated from university, and this was good. We immediately went into the farm idea full time. So in the end things really turned out well. But there is a ton of story to get to before we find out why this is.

Eventually I found a breeder in Pocatello, Idaho for our male. Once more the timing was a bit off, so we didn't have the chance to go there personally. But I was able to secure enough information to make our purchase decision, and so we bought Clark Bar Griswald (AKC).

This was the first time we bought a puppy and had him shipped to us air freight. On a cold winter's night we ventured out in an ice storm to the airport. He was an immediate success and has always been the prince of the house. He was timid during the car ride home; but upon entering the house and seeing our four Basset Hounds he decided that this would be his home  and tore happily into his new family. All hail the Prince.

His ears and coloring are amazing, his personality is very male, but kind and gentle. He is not a smiley dog, but has an enormous sense of humor and a deep love of his two girls, who he does not leave alone for a minute.

Clark has grown into a very good dog, we have our breeding stock and so eventually we might have the money. Our plans are still viable despite set backs and draw backs. Puppies coming in a year or so. So it became clear to us that it was time to start getting serious about finding a property to build our dreams upon.