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Ekundu has turned three, and it has prompted many thoughts and feelings. This is a brief story on how our family became a ridgeback family:
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Late October ‘00
Carey and the kids had been working on me for sometime about adding a pet to our household. I had many pets growing up, but as I grew older, I didn’t feel having pets around was real important. After getting home one night from work there was a puppy magazine conveniently left on the kitchen island. This was one of those magazines that had all the different breeds and brief descriptions of them. I spent a few days going through it, and came up with only one breed that I wanted to learn more about it. The Rhodesian Ridgeback. So the internet surfing and book reading began. The research then went to the next level. We began talking to as many ridgeback breeders as possible. We finally zeroed in on a few local breeders.
One of those breeders was Mary Lynne Elliot. We spent a couple of months talking with Mary Lynne learning as much as we could about the breed. At the time Mary Lynne was the president of the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the United States, and as luck would have it, she lived only ten minutes away. Carey and I could not have asked for a better situation.
Early in April of ’01
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Mary Lynne and her close friend Nathan Berry invited us over to meet their dogs. When we arrived, there was the whole range of ridgebacks waiting for us. There was a one-year-old male, 3 and 6 year old females and a 13-year-old female. It was great to meet such a variety of ridgebacks. After spending an hour or so with them, and the months of research, we knew that this was the breed for us.
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The biggest surprise of the day is when we got to meet the recent litter of Mary Lynne’s that she had co-breed with some friends of hers. We took a thirty minute drive, which the kids thought took forever, to meet the puppies. When we arrived the excitement of our family was unbelievable. While playing with the puppies we got a chance to meet a lot of the people who would be taking their puppies home that day. There was a couple from Colorado Springs who we remember the most. We both were interested in a male puppy and there was one male left. There were also two females available. The male was an adorable little guy who stole the heart of that couple from the springs.
When others started to arrive for their puppies, Carey, the kids and I was talking with them. We told them that since they arrived before us, they should get the first choice on which puppy they wanted. They decided to go with the male. That left the two girls. We were all getting a little hungry, so we decided to head out and get something to eat. Before we left, we told Mary Lynne that if one of the girls was still available, we would love to have her as part of our family.
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Later that evening we got the call. Mary Lynne told us if we wanted the “pink” girl we could go get her. With out hesitation I got in the truck and went to go get her. While I was in route, Carey had her hands full. We had told the kids that I was going to pick her up, and that they needed to help her get a few things around the house in order for her arrival. They didn’t fall for that, they stood at the front door waiting for us to get home. They were so excited they were crying; puppy, puppy… When the “pink girl and I arrived home, we were greeted by the kids, with tears in their eyes.
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I think it’s safe to say none of us at time knew how much that little puppy girl would change our lives. Ekundu, as she is known now, has brought many new experiences to us. She has brought us closer together as a family, and we have met many wonderful people because of her.
Thank you Mary Lynne, without your guidance, our family would not feel as complete as it does today.
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