Here is a story for you.....

Once upon a time there was a little dog named Otto. He was our family dog, due to age we had to put him down in the summer of 2004 at a ripe age of 15. My mother was very attached to this little guy. He was essentially her dog, she was home with him for the majority of his life. (I was very attached to this little guy too I miss him dearly) I am very thankful to say my mother was a stay at home mother for the majority of our upbringing. At the time I had my little puppy Zoe. She brought us laughter in a time where it was needed. I however grew up and went to school and moved away, and I had to take my puppy along with Cam and myself. This saddened both my parents at this point. My dad had spent countless hours with Zoe at home while I was at work when I lived at home. Either way if you talk to either of them they will tell you that I ripped her from their adoring arms.

My sister Danielle, my brother Brett, and myself thought that we need to get our parents a new puppy. They had been looking for a few years after Otto, but the right dog never came to them. They had a few leads on a few, but nothing ever worked out for them. One day I was at work and I came across an ad for Cairn puppys for sale in Saskatchewan. Immediately I email the ad, and arrange this puppy for my parents. Everything was set, we were going to get the puppy in a week. As we were arranging this little meeting none of us children said word one to my parents. We told other people what we were up to, but everyone that knew agreed what we had planned for my parents was worth keeping the secret for a couple weeks.

So here was the plan:

We couldn't just give her the puppy, no! We had told her that we weren't coming home for September long weekend. Because we went to Nelson just recently. We also decided that we could have fun with our mom for sure, and she would get my dad going. So we created our own email account as a kennel and posted and ad on the internet and sent it to my mom to reply to, and try to get a puppy. So she was emailing our kennel email, and we were responding to her about the puppy as the kennel. Meanwhile she would call us, she would forward emails from the 'kennel' to us, and talk to us online about this puppy that she had found and how promising it was going to be, but reminding us all the while that they didn't have their hopes up. So as the kennel we emailed her an application form for her to fill out. So she filled it out and emailed it back to the kennel, and forwarding a copy of it to our personal emails as well. Us here in Edmonton were enjoying ourselves with laughter over this little prank we are pulling on my parents. The weekend comes to pick up the puppy so we head off to Camrose to go and pick this little one up. We were prepared to look after her for a week while we waited till the long weekend to surprise my mom and dad with her. So eventually as the kennel we emailed my mom back stating that she wasn't chosen to have this particular puppy. This puppy was too busy and required a fenced yard, which my parents do not have.

My mom was a little crushed. But she kept her hopes us because she felt like she had a good relationship with the Kennel people and that she would get a puppy from their next litter. I felt bad writing the email telling her she didn't get the puppy. She even phoned my cell after she recieved the email to tell me that they didn't get the puppy :o( So I went along with it and offered some words of encouragment. Many people we told this story too thought it was cruel to do that to her as well. I would just remind these people that in the end she is getting a puppy, so she just has to work for it a little bit. Anyways, we brought the puppy back to our place here in Edmonton and she was very cute, but I swear she was a little devil. She looks cute and all, but she was a little bugger. She would nip at Zoe and bite us all of the time. She sure cried a whole lot as well. But who couldn't love this:

So finally when the September long weekend came, Danielle and myself packed up Charlie (he's my car) and the puppy and we headed off to Nelson for the weekend for the grand surprise. And what a surprise it was. My dad was overjoyed with the new little addition, and my mom was still at work. So, we waited till she got off of work and surprised her with us being there. We had the puppy hidden from her. We wanted some attention as well because we did come home to visit. Then once she was home and we visited for a little while, we let the little she devil loose. She ran down the hallway past my mom. In shock my mom started crying and scooped the little one up and cuddled her to bits.

It was the most rewarding thing that us children have ever done for my parents. They have named her Toona, and she is the cutest little thing in Nelson. We are all waiting for our payback, but I think that they enjoyed our little prank on them :o)

Till Next time.....