I posted about what a shitty summer my dad had. He made a full recovery, but about three weeks after getting out of the hospital his job announced he was to be laid off (after 20 years working for the company as it passed through various owners and buyouts).
Yep, that is one sucky summer!
It turned out OK; my dad has a much better new job. But still, I wanted to do something special for him this Christmas.
Around the end of October, my co-worker Scott brought in these photos of the four puppies that needed homes.
The puppies were half Pekingese, half chihuahua. Two were brown, two were black. Two were long-haired, two were short-haired. I fell in love with the long-haired brown puppy, but knew I couldn’t handle any more animals myself. Besides, I’m a big-dog type of person. Then, like a message from baby Jesus, I was struck with an idea:
Maybe it was time for my parents to get a pet!
Our beloved German Shepherd Harley had to be put to sleep two years ago this December. She had lived to be 13, and was truly the best dog ever. But her bad hips finally did her in.
Harley, summer 2005, age 13. We miss you girl!
Since then, my parents (especially my mother, who doesn’t like animals much) said they traveled too much to have a dog again. However, I suspected that my father missed having a dog around. Not only did both of my parents love Harley, but my dad especially loved our mildly retarded pekingese/?? mix Buckwheat (aka Pepper). Buckwheat had passed away several years before.
Dad and Buckwheat, circa ~ 1991
So I called my mother and jokingly acted like I already bought a puppy, just to see her reaction. I said, “Guess what I got Dad for Christmas? A PUPPY!” Instead of being mad, she actually warmed to the idea very quickly and said it would be nice to have a dog around the house again. I about “fell out” from surprise, as they say on Jerry Springer. Next I called my dad, and surprisingly he didn’t like the puppy idea. He didn’t even believe me when I said that mom liked the idea.
By the next day he had warmed to the idea as well. I think they were both sold when the above puppy pictures of Sparky hit their inbox! I was told that if I met the puppy and liked him, that I could get it for my dad for Christmas. (I live in Colorado and they live 8 hours away in Kansas, so they couldn’t meet him themselves.)
Scott would not have snuck him into work for me to meet him, because that would be against the rules. So it didn’t happen. These pictures of him being held by a co-worker are obviously photoshopped. 
I think my parents were even more in love with him when they got these photos. Arrangements were made; in a week, I’d pick up Sparky and keep him overnight, and would deliver him the next day to my parents at a rendezvous point in Kansas.
And now the whole family is so in love with Sparky that I even started a blog about him. (Yeah, I’m doing a bit of cross-posting here.) I try to post there every 24 - 48 hours with new pics of Sparky. I haven’t seen him since Christmas, when Moose and I went home to visit. I miss him lots. I don’t think Moose misses him though.
I called my mom right upon leaving work, knowing that listening to her talk would be a good way to kill some commute time.
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