I decided the 7-11 birthday present for the girls this year would be a VERY big one if I could “get all the ducks in a row”! After seeing how much the girls enjoyed Knuffle Bunny, I thought maybe it was the right time for a dog. Last summer, I picked out our next family dog – a standard poodle. The standard poodle is a medium to large sized dog ranging in weight from 45-75 pounds. It is a hunting breed that loves to swim for our adventures to Lake Tahoe (when we move back) and most importantly, it does NOT shed.

We decided to get a puppy in America for a couple reasons. The most important one was close friends have problems with their dogs they purchased in China. Faith’s toy puddle, Penny, is going blind at the age of two. Faith now needs to get Penny home for an expensive eye surgery in the States. Jennifer’s dog, Spanky, was taking from the litter at four weeks and has many anxiety issues. The other not as important reason is we prefer bigger dogs which China doesn’t provide. A dog is part of the family for 15 years, therefore, worth the extra cost and effort to get a healthy one.

I began searching the internet in the evenings when the girls were in bed. I did not realize that when I began my search it was going to be hard to find the puppy born at the right time. The puppy had to be over 8 weeks old to fly for FDA regulations and it needed to be under 12 weeks old to not need the rabies shot which isn’t given until 4 months. I didn’t tell the girls about my idea because if I could not make it work, they would be so disappointed. I spent many late nights searching all of Northern California. I expanded my search to the Reno, Nevada area. I was about to give up when a breeder emailed me with a littler of red puppies due June 1. The puppies arrived on May 31, Emersyn’s birthday – this was the right puppy for us. In addition, this breeder has experience shipping a puppy aboard and knew all the paperwork requirements.

Part of “getting the ducks in a row” was the hurdle to get the puppy back to Shanghai. The dog and Jim would need to fly to Guangzhou as there is no quarantine in this City, but 7 days in Shanghai. We decided it would be easiest for Jim and the puppy to have Mr. Nie picked them up in Guangzhou instead of taking the train. We estimated it would take about a 18 hours to drive. This would be a long travel adventure for a new puppy. We can not get the puppy until 10 days before we departure San Francisco due to the China paperwork stamp requirement. The girls would have to wait all summer before they could get their new puppy.

The other part of getting a dog would be Knuffle Bunny needed a new home. Knuffle is sweet, but smelly. I change the cage twice a day. Also, every time Knuffle Bunny is out, he is chewing on something. One time I had no internet for a few days while Jim was away. When Jim returned, he discovered my no internet problem was due to the cable being chewed through by Knuffle. Jim had the job of finding a new home for Knuffle Bunny. A women at work heard he had a bunny to give away and asked for him – can you beat that! She wanted a bunny as a pet for her 7 year old son.

We told the girls about the dog after the Litt family left China. Emersyn was so excited she couldn’t believe we were actually getting a puppy. Eleri didn’t say much but cried in bed that night about Knuffle Bunny needing to leave. Once we get the dog, she will discover it is more fun than Knuffle Bunny.

Knuffle Bunny did seem to like Eleri the best. She was the only one that could flip him over and carry him like a baby.