Great news this morning. Lenore Severni, the experienced and respected breeder and owner of Stonewall Farms Labradors in Connecticut, called to bring us to the next step in the acquisition of a female puppy born last week.

I sent Lenore a check for $500 as a deposit some weeks ago, she was calling to say Garnett, her champion breeding dog, had seven healthy puppies (all over one pound). They all appear strong and healthy.

She said she was calling to confirm that I still wanted one of the puppies and if so, she would cash my deposit check and commit to selling her to me.

That’s the standard ritual for good breeders. A responsible breeder will never sell a dog who is not healthy.

They take a deposit, wait to make sure the puppies are born and all right, give the buyer the last chance to decline, and if they accept, then the dog is theirs. Lenore was also making certain that she could give me one of the females I asked for.

She says the three females are all healthy and suitable for sale.

The remaining $2,000 is to be paid when the dog is picked up and taken to its new home.

I was thrilled to get this photograph, Garnett is such a beautiful dog and clearly a wonderful and patient mother, it can’t have been easy to give birth to seven fat and healthy babies.

I gather Garnett is both caring and grounded and easygoing. You can interpret her  look in this photo in many ways, my take is “please, get these puppies out of here so I can have my life back!”

I’m certain Zinnia will be a healthy, grounded and beautiful dog. Lenore says we can come and see Zinnia in five weeks when they can get their first shots, and then again at eight weeks when we want to bring her home.

She should be here by Thanksgiving.

I much enjoyed the rescue process when I got Bud, and I am greatly appreciating what it means to deal with an ethical, experienced and rational breeder like Lenore as well. I feel we are communicating beautifully with each other, we are speaking the same language.

There are many good ways to get a dog, all of them require thoughtfulness and clarity.

Lenore breeds for health and temperament, and I am confident Zinnia will have the makings of a wonderful finally pet, and a great therapy dog.

With a breeder like Lenore, one can often get a dog that can be trained to do almost anything. There are no guarantees with dogs any more than there are with people, but this process has its own ethics, rituals, and history. It’s as far from a crapshoot as I can get. Lenore knows the history of her breeding dogs back for many generations.

Lenore was exhausted when she called today. Like all dedicated breeders, she’s been up all night with Garnet and her puppies to make sure they are healthy and getting enough to eat.

So far so good. Garnett seems like a remarkable mother to me. Time to start planning and thinking about our new dog, “Zin.”