Squee! Just talked to the breeder, and I can pick up Puppy To Be Named Later on Friday -- can't wait!!!

Ahem. Anyway, back to the story, which I'd better finish before I have a puppy to distract me --

After fabulous Sherry's last days, my family moved to Tennessee. I started a new school in a whole new state without the moral support of a dog. Y'know, looking back, I know that it was only about four months between Sherry's death and Taduh's introduction to our family, but it felt a lot longer than that.

For Thanksgiving that year, we traveled to Mississippi to visit Mama's relatives. While we were there, we discovered that the puppy we had given Uncle Buddy a few years before was still a mama herself. And her latest litter had just been given away -- except for the runt. We met Taduh in a sweet potato patch, running around and falling into the holes left behind by harvested sweet potatoes.

I know it sounds impossibly contrived, but I swear it's the truth. That's why we named him Taduh, short for "sweet potato"!

Taduh was just about perfect, but we weren't. Although Taduh slept inside the house, he still was an indoor/outdoor dog - the kind that you let out when he needed to go instead of putting him on a leash and walking him carefully. And we had just moved to a much bigger city than the little town to which we were accustomed.

Taduh lasted long enough to get me through the worst of my Sherry grief, but he didn't live very long. He was hit by a car before he turned a year old, and I was a brat and blamed my mother for it.

He was a great dog, house trained so quickly and so smart. After Taduh, we didn't get any more dogs. I guess we had learned that if you can't be bothered to keep a dog properly safe, then you shouldn't have a dog.

It was years before I had another dog, and of course, it was another corgi. That'll be Part 4, and then I can move on to the new puppy. Eeeee! New puppy coming! Can't breathe; must calm down!