We Brought Home a Yorkshire Terrier Puppy

For the holidays, my husband and I did something we swore we would never do again. We bought our boys a puppy. Not just any puppy, mind you, a Yorkshire terrier.

It sort of happened as these things often do. I was sitting in the carpool lane one day just before school let out for the holidays. Along comes this teenage boy walking three pups, side by side on their leashes, just cute as can be, two Maltese and one Yorkie. All three were dressed to the nines in cute, doggie sweaters with matching collars and leashes. Very well behaved, they patiently lined up all in a row on the sidewalk and waited for their young owner to come out of the school.

“Oh honey, look at those cute puppies. Isn't that a Yorkie?”
“Oh no, don't even look at them.”
“But honey, look how sweet, they're all lined up. Look at the face on that cute puppy.”
“Don't even think about it”.

My son comes ambling down the walk way with his friends and opens the car door.

“What are ya'll talking about?” He waves good-bye to his friends as he climbs in the SUV.
"Oh nothing." I point toward the boy and his dogs. "Did you see those cute puppies over there?”

My husband just rolled his eyes as I started the car to drive away.

A few days later my son comes to my office and asks whether we're getting a puppy. I said we weren't planning on it.

“Remember that one little brown faced one? He was really cute wasn't he mom?
“Yes. He's called a Yorkie, sweetheart.”
He opened the door to leave, “It would be nice to have a dog again.”

Our last four legged friend somehow escaped our backyard in the spring of last year. At the time, the animal shelter told us dogs were escaping the whole week of his disappearance. Seems all the doggie ladies were in heat. We never found poor Teddy, and I can only hope some loving family adopted that sweet cock-a-poo or maybe he found that special someone and had lots of pups!

The next day I found myself curiously looking online at Yorkie puppies and breeders in my area. I studiously searched the internet for anything and everything to do with Yorkshire terriers: temperaments, habits, pros, cons. I weighed everything. Took every online compatibility quiz I could find about choosing the perfect dog for our family.

My son, once again, comes into the room looking over my shoulder. I wasn’t quick enough to minimize the screen before he saw cute puppy pictures. This was one conversation that was over before it began.

“You know, I promise mom, I'll feed him, walk him, and play with him. I promise! If you get me a puppy, I don't need any other holiday gifts at all. That's it for me,” he said as a glimmer of hope began to shine brightly in his eyes.

And so it was on a cool, almost wintry day in Dallas, Texas, my two sons and I set out to visit the Yorkie breeder about an hour and half away from where we live. Notice my husband did not accompany us on this expedition!

His name is Pepper, a spunky, intelligent, very sweet Yorkshire terrier. Here he is at 12 weeks old, all 2 pounds of him!