How Poppy Came to Me
It was a night at the beginning of August 2017 when yet again I simply couldn't fall asleep. I had recently lost my dearly beloved husband and only a few days later my endearing Pem boy Bommel. A year ago our little Pem lady Rieke had gone to the rainbow bridge and only a few years earlier we lost our Little Bear, a Cardi boy, to IMHA at the age of only 7 years. Sleepless nights were therefore hardly surprising.
Bommel, Little Bear and Rieke - in happier times
After what felt like an eternity, I got fed up with this tossing and turning in the vain hope that sleep would come. So I got up. By then it was long past midnight and I sat again in front of my PC hoping that it would distract and cheer me up. I searched for news and finally browsed the links on my favourite website for Germany's Corgi world.
My dear friend Anita had given me a free ticket to new Corgi happiness ("I shall gladly give you a new puppy, but you will have to find and pick one yourself!"). However, in this dark night I had no intention of making any momentous decisions. All I wanted to do was "puppy watching". It didn't matter whether it was Pembrokes or Cardigans, I simply skipped through the Corgi sites just like other people zap through the TV programmes, looking for pretty pictures to sooth my mind and so they did.
Poppy at the age of 4 weeks
However, that night I could only find scattered pictures of puppies in Germany, and this was simply because there were few new litters. Therefore my unbridled search covered the whole of Europe. I enjoyed all the lovely videos ("Topi, the Corgi", being one of my favourites) until by chance I happened to land in Great Britain, only virtually of course. If I had seriously intended to find a puppy that night, I would never have searched that far away, but in this case the general globalisation suited me just right. Welsh Corgi Cardigan Association - Current litters and available dogs: "Red girl, long haired, still available". Still available? Good pedigree too. Hmm, now where was that link - ah here it is.
A click on the relevant photo with the video and I was lost. Goodbye common sense, my brain departed to Neverland and I watched and watched the same video a full 28 times.
A four week old Cardi girl, cute as a button and looking very serious, plodded across a table and approached the edge, but a helping hand got her on track again. Watching this didn't make me more tired! And no, she did not fall off the table during the 28th viewing.
This can't be true, I thought. This small bundle has just captured my heart! Darn! What now? What am I going to do? Oh, Great Corgwyn, what do you think you are doing? Why of all things do you want to carry me off to England?!? The little angel in me, whose job isn't easy, whispered: Great Britain! Far, far away!! How do you want to get her to Berlin?! At least one of you will have to take an AIRPLANE!! And the little devil: "This can't be a coincidence, it's MAGIC. My little devil and I have definitely seen too many soppy movies.
At least I managed not to do ANYTHING more that night. Not even sending off an extremely urgent, spontaneous order to the United Kingdom with a 24 hours delivery service. As far as I remember, I even waited until early breakfast the next morning before sending urgent alerts to my friends and waking up innocent Corgi-owners by phone calls.
I once knew someone who a long time ago had a great breed portrait on her homepage, where you could read: Find as much information as possible! Carefully study the pedigree! Take the time to get to know the breeder and grant the breeder the opportunity to get to know you, and so on and so forth. Ha!
Yep, you are quite right. It was me! And I still know exactly why I had written it. But the fact is that all of a sudden I didn't care a hoot about my own wise words of advice. Oh my God.
How wonderful it is in such a situation to be a part of the great loving Corgi Nation! My friends took over the planning and organising which in my case was just as well! Of course, everyone somehow knew someone who could help and so everything came to a happy end, even though it had started quite spontaneously and coincidentally from a rather sad situation. And it was quite funny when it later turned out that Eileen, the breeder of my future puppy, used to buy my books.
Now I could just sit back and watch and enjoy the many wonderful videos and lots of lovely photos, swooning over them with "ahhhs!" and "ohhhs!" and "so cute". Unfortunately I had to wait much longer than I had expected, because a puppy born within the EU has to be at least 15 weeks old before it may travel to another country.... "sigh".
Life did its best to keep me busy, although I could have done without some of the distractions! My friends waited with me and I'm afraid it must have been quite tedious for them. They bore with me and comforted me even when I was whining about the long waiting time, which after all was my own decision. Quite honestly, I believe everyone was relieved when the waiting came to an end and at long last I could take the puppy in my arms at the Dutch Cardigan Club's Championship Show on 22 October. Eileen was judging and my little girl had travelled with her to Amsterdam. Thanks to my dear friend Ines, we thus could meet halfway. The personal encounter was short but very warm and a cute puppy changed owner.
After two Pembrokes and one Cardigan, all three of them loved and not forgotten, a small Cardi girl will now brighten the life at the Corgihouse.
May I introduce:
"Kilvroch Pragma Poppy Eithne Stahl", call name "Poppy" because her coat is of the richest red colour with just a hint of sabling and also because a poppy was the last flower I brought my husband from the garden.
Poppy and Annie
And right there, Poppy and her godsister have already been romping about. She has been thoroughly cuddled by one godmother and has skyped with another godmother. Poppy has honestly and truly a good dozen godmothers around the world. If this is not a good omen then I don't know what is.
Relaxing at the new home
But now we must get a move on and post the first pictures - Eileen and half the Corgi Nation are waiting.
Sweet dreams, after a long day
Billie Stahl, Berlin
English translation: ANo
31.10.2017
