Elsa II

So, welcome Elsa the second. I kind of explained what happened with Elsa the first on Facebook, but it was a quick post and a stressful evening, so I'll go a little more in-depth now.

Basically, I had a weird feeling about the company we were buying her from...they are called Purebred Breeders and supposedly they are an intermediary between breeders and folks looking to buy dogs. Like us. We saw a GSD on their website that we really liked. We have been talking about getting another dog for a very long time, so it wasn't a quick decision, but I got a little trigger happy when we found Elsa the first. Buy now, think later.

All week, I had this strange feeling, intuition, a hunch, whatever. We hadn't done much checking into Purebred Breeders...when I did Google them, I found a bunch of unhappy customers (and some happy, to be fair). And we started thinking: just what exactly had we done? They didn't ask us any questions about us, our family, our lifestyle or our living situation. They just went for the hard sell. Seriously, within 15 seconds of talking to the rep at Purebred Breeders, he was asking "Ya wanna buy her? Huh?".

When we started to ask questions about her pedigree and whether we could talk to her actual breeder, they started getting a little evasive. To be fair to them, they want us to buy from THEM, not go to the actual breeder. But. It seemed like simple enough information to divulge. We finally got them to let us talk to the breeder (I still wonder if it was actually her or the person in the next cubicle), but she was evasive and wouldn't answer questions. I continued to feel a little sick and worried about the situation. Something just told me that it was wrong, that it wasn't going to be right.

Elsa the first was due to arrive last night at 10:20 p.m. We ended up cancelling the contract with Purebred Breeders at about 5:00 p.m. on Friday night. Hans was on the internet and had located a puppy up near DC by about 5:15 p.m. and we made arrangements to go see her yesterday. Why we didn't just do that to begin with, I don't know...

Elsa the second just happened to have turned eight weeks old yesterday--just the age to go home. She was also less than half the cost of the Purebred Breeders GSD, which makes us happy. Her birthday is 11/11/11. Annika and I drove up to Dumfries, VA yesterday and met with the breeders, a Marine and his wife. They were great people and we got to interact with the three female puppies they had for sale. The one we brought home interacted well with Annika and me...the one the breeders had picked out for us before we came was standoffish and wouldn't come near Annika. Who knows what Elsa the first would have been like without meeting her?

I feel very stupid for making such a quick purchase without properly doing research. We are out $495 in fees, which sucks and will teach us a good lesson in doing a quick check on companies before doing business with them. I feel awful for the poor dog who thought she was coming to her forever home last night. But Elsa the second (heretofore to be referred to as Elsa) is fantastic, beautiful, has already bonded with the kids and won the hearts of the adults in the house.

Enjoy the pics. Now, I've got three children and a puppy I have to constantly be on top of...gotta go!