Southern Beau

The state flag of North Carolina.

When it comes to Coton de tulears, there's a bit of a custody battle. A number of organizations claim to be groups of breeders who hold their progeny to the highest standards of testing and screening, as well as selection for desirable traits. Once I got on the phone with a few of them, they often ask you what other breeders you have spoken to, and the allegiances would become clear. This is not to say it's all vehement (you get lots of earnest referrals, too), but there's definitely some prickly feelings between the AKC, mCTCA, ACC, NACA, and MCPC.

You might imagine that this type of diversity and division would make it hard to figure out who the most reputable breeders are - and you would be correct. I had many different phone calls and leads all over the US (and some in Canada) trying to find:

1. Someone we could trust

2. Someone who would have a litter coming up soon

3. Someone who would have availability in their litter

It wasn't easy. We ended up on the waitlist for at least 6 or 7 breeders, and I think that ultimately I would have been pleased to acquire a pup from 3 or 4 of them. We had the privilege of being able to be patient and choosy, and it's a big decision! A pup is a member of your family, after all, and you want to make sure you can provide a great environment for them, that they are coming from a great environment, and that they can lead a healthy, happy life.

There was some heartbreak. We had been offered a pup from a breeder and were relatively certain it was going to work out (the breeder literally sent us a text saying "almost positive will be yours, just waiting for lab results to come back"). But after seeing the pup and its results, the breeder decided to keep it instead for breeding purposes. It was a bad experience, as we had given up spots on other lists because we had already committed to that pup. Having heard our story, another breeder reached out with a lead for a soon-to-be born pup that they had sired and we were elated to commit there. But sadly, the pup did not survive the first week of life. After having spent 4 months preparing, doing due diligence, and getting on lists, it was beginning to feel like it just wasn't meant to be.

But our contact who had referred us was friends with another breeder who had an upcoming litter and told us we should give her a call. We relayed our sob story and simply asked that we be considered the next time they had an availability, which we assumed would be the following year (it was now August). But as fate would have it, our story was moving enough that in her upcoming litter, since she had taken less deposits than pups, she was able to squeeze us in. It helped that we were flexible on size, sex, and color (this is apparently something other people care a lot about - we just wanted a sweet, healthy member of the family), and the giant of the litter (twice the size of the smallest), with unusual spots, and a big heart sounded like the perfect match.

And so, two months later, we drove down to North Carolina to pick up the sweetest little pup, Nugget (at that time, his name was Rowan).

1. At home after pickup day 2. Where are the presents? 3. Waiting for Santa

Driving home, he cried and howled (there's a specific lost puppy cry for help), but eventually calmed down and was at least able to cry softly. But he loved being touched and held, so sticking our hands in his carrier, he was able to sooth himself by cuddling up to us.

As with all babies (which we call him all the time), he's still learning the ropes. He's done exceedingly well in potty training and basic commands, and his attention span is starting to increase past a couple of seconds. He loves playing in dead leaves, gets so excited when meeting new people (especially children), licks whatever part of you he can get to, and melts in your arms when you hold him. In one regard, it feels like the past few months have instead been years (especially when he couldn't consistently sleep at night), but more often than not, it seems like just yesterday that he was 6 pounds (now he's 12!).

1. Loves his hedgie 2. Little snowbunny tracks 3. First grooming

Now if we could just get him to be ok with being alone for a second...