by Karen Louise Hollis

Created on: June 16, 2010

Our dog was becoming old and I felt it was time to add a puppy to our household. I had been nagging my husband for about a year when he relented. I had tried the old “Another dog or another baby?” tactic, but he replied “Neither” and that was it. But in 2006, I started early. Every time someone asked me what I wanted for my birthday in October, I’d say “A dog” and nothing else.

It was August or September when Hubby admitted he’d been looking for a dog for me, using sites like Trade-it. That was it then, I was off and running at the first glimpse of a green light. I was soon checking our local newspaper websites, Trade-it and Epupz every day.

Ideally, I wanted a young dog, another female and it to be free – or at least cheap. It had to be small and my preferred breeds were terriers or spaniels, as I liked little dogs and we only have a small house. I was looking for a dog around two years old, so it would be house trained and over the difficult stages.

The first place I called was the local dog’s home. They were quite awkward though, I felt. Not only would we need to fill in forms and have our house inspected, they also said we’d need to bring our other dog in to meet any prospective dog, but warned they had a bad bout of kennel cough, which shey could catch. So I soon dismissed that option.

Looking at the websites, it became clear that dogs fitting the description I was looking for were few and far between. While still continuing to look for older dogs, I began considering getting a puppy. I joined Epupz and the first dog I rang about there was a cross between my two favourite breeds and she was free to a good home. Sadly, we were the second to ring in and the first couple adopted her.

We had hoped to get a dog for less than £50, but this too proved unrealistic. After a couple of weeks of daily searching, I found a Jack Russell terrier cross puppy in Cardiff – about 40 minutes away – and she was female too and £80. I rang to see if she was still available and she was. After talking to her owner, I realised the total cost was going to be £100, but this included her bed, collar, lead, food, bowls, toys and so on. The lady had bought her at six weeks and a week later had realised a puppy didn’t fit in with a full time job and she was going to have to sell her. 

A week later, we drove to Cardiff to see the puppy. She was a tiny thing, all white and

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