Last minute puppy

Ever since deciding not to get Bentley ‘fixed’ in the hope that we might one day breed from him, we had considered getting another dog to join our family. Much debate occurred around the dinner table over whether we should get a Labrador or a golden retriever (as we had seen some mixed puppies who turned out as beautiful long haired black labs essentially) and what we would call such a lady…

Luckily, the cost of puppies had dropped since the lockdowns, but not being so keen to drive across the country for the ideal little lady, we had to wait.

We promised our girls after our roadtrip in Europe that we might get a puppy before the end of 2023- but we couldn’t be sure if the right litter would be available near to us.

But we got lucky- a few litters soon appeared, but not golden retrievers or even black labs. These puppies were fox red labs instead.

One litter happened to be on our route to/ from Oxford and we had to go later that week. So before we knew it, we were stopping off near Chipping Norton to choose a puppy.

Which was the second time we made a fairly spontaneous choice- with nothing set up at home for a puppy. This time around we didn’t worry about puppy pads or toys- we reused Bentleys old crate (which has doubled as chick run/ chicken jail on more than one occasion since he was young) and lined it with cosy old towels.

We chose a puppy who was the calmest of her sisters- with two golden patches on her back after her mother, who was a golden Labrador.

We called her Enza  (female version of 'Enzo Ferrari’. Porsche and Mercedes were also considered as names), to fit the theme of ‘cars we will never afford but like to name our dogs after’.

She’s been a totally different dog to Bentley- socially awkward, eats everything including all our shoes and finds her own way home across the fields (leaving us behind). But we love her, our little fox red lady.