Why Blog About Yorkies?

First and foremost, I know about Life With Yorkies because I live with Yorkies. Two of them.

I’ve been around more years than I care to think about, and I’ve had dogs for a good number of those years. I have loved every single one of them - they were great friends and companions - but I really can’t say that any of them completely took over my life. Not until a Yorkie joined our family, that is.

Getting a Yorkie wasn’t my idea. It was my wife’s. She had been saying for over a year that she wanted to get a dog again. We had been without a dog for over ten years, and losing our last one (a miniature Schnauzer) had been so heartbreaking that I just didn’t have any interest in going through that again. Our kids were grown, though, and I guess the maternal instinct in my wife just drove her to look for some little creature to care for. She settled on a Yorkie. I kept telling her we couldn’t really afford one, but the whole time I was keeping my eyes open for one to get for her.

For her. That was my attitude at the time. She wants a Yorkie pup, so I’m going to get one for her. I’ll have more to say later about how quickly and how dramatically attitudes can change – but for now I’ll just continue with my search for HER dog.

One day shortly before Mother’s Day in 2006 I was at work and opened the newspaper at lunch time for a quick glance at the dogs for sale area in the classified ads – something I was doing a few times each week. I don’t remember exactly what the ad that I saw that day said, but I know the price caught my attention. These pups were actually in our price range! I called and learned that the owners could meet with us later that afternoon – but they were over an hour away. I called my wife and told her that I really needed for her to get ready quickly to go someplace with me – without asking any questions.

Any guys reading this – how often has something like that worked for you? Well, it didn’t work for me either. I had to tell her where we were going and why, but it did get her ready quickly. I excused myself from work (“Urgent family matter I have to take care of”), picked up my wife (and our granddaughter who was spending the day with her) and headed up the road.

When we got there, we found that there were six of the cutest little creatures I had ever seen! Four of them were the puppies – the other two were the parents. One of the babies was a male, and he was already spoken for. A female was also spoken for, but the buyers hadn’t come to make their selection yet – so we actually had first choice among the three little girls. Well, the puppy was going to be my wife’s Mothers Day present, so SHE had first choice among the three little girls. Up until the time we got there I had, for the most part, been indifferent to getting a puppy. It was just for my wife.

When I started getting acquainted with Daisy and Roscoe (the puppies’ parents) and with the puppies, that all changed quickly and dramatically. By the time we had been there 15 minutes, I was trying to figure out how I could afford to buy both of the little females that were still available. That didn’t happen, but we spent the better part of two hours there. My wife played with all of the puppies together and each of them individually, and she finally made here choice. Some time in the future, I’ll have to write a bit about the joy of first being exposed to Yorkies – but not today.

Our lives changed that day. Bailey (that’s what my wife named our new baby) wasn’t just a pet in the house. Even before the hour ride home began, Bailey had won our hearts. She was a new family member.

We stopped at Petsmart on the way home. Remember – this was pretty sudden. We didn’t have ANYTHING at home for a puppy. We did have a little bit of food with us. Enough for about a week. The breeders were thoughtful enough to send home with us a small bag of the food that all of the puppies had been eating.

But we had no crate/kennel, no bedding, no toys … as we walked around in Petsmart, we realized just how much there was to not have, and we did not have ALL of it. We spent another $100 there, and it seemed that almost daily for a month or more, we thought of more things that Bailey “needed.”

As I write this, that was 27 months ago, and life is far different at our house. My wife often says that it’s a pretty sad commentary when about all you talk about is your dogs. I prefer to think it says a lot about your dogs when they rise above all of mundane daily stuff as a topic of conversation.

If you have a Yorkie (or more than one), you will certainly know what I mean. If you don’t have one, your day will come. In either case, you know why we’re here. We love our Yorkies. I plead guilty to being obsessed with Yorkies. And I’m happy you’ve dropped in. I hope you find enough of interest to bring you back!