Koko The Cute

On Thanksgiving day 2013, Suzee died. We had loved her for over 5 years, and if you had to have a dog, Suzee was the one to have. She will always have a place in our hearts!

After Suzee left us, I thought we should never get another dog again. It was too painful to have Suzee leave us. But it wasn't very long before I realized that we needed to have a little doggie in this house. I began looking around for the perfect dog for our family. Brad wanted something small, something that didn't shed, and something that would be good with kids. We wanted something that would be young so that we didn't have to worry about it dying old age anytime soon, and I wanted a girl so that we can put bows in her hair.

I had found a couple of dogs on the Internet that were close to what we wanted, but it wasn't until the middle of December that I saw an ad on craigslist for a little 4-week old Shih Tzu puppy in Idaho Falls. The very next day I went with my friend Amberly Christensen to meet this dog and see if it would work ou for ust.

The house was a little tiny dump on 17th St. Garbage was piled up by the door. When the door opened you could smell cigarette smoke overwhelmingly. And there, on the floor, sat a little tiny ball of fur which was just shaking in fear. I picked up the fur ball and looked at it...and knew that I would not be able to leave this cute little dog there, but that she would have to come home with me. As we left Amberley made the comment that she was glad I had taken the puppy, because if I hadn't, she would've had to!

I put my little rescue in one of Suzees old kennels in the van. She reeked of cigarette smoke. I brought her home, put her in my jetted tub, and scrubbed her two or three times. By then the smoke smell wasn't quite as bad. She looked like a little brown drowned rat. She was so small and so terrified, that I couldn't help but feel compassion for her. I used the blow dryer to return her to her puffy state. After that I brought her out to the kitchen. She followed me everywhere. She never left my heels until I went to get the kids from school.

The kids came home from school. I had left the nameless puppy in the bathtub where they would not find her, and turned on music to drown out any whimperings they might hear. Our Advent clue that morning had been "do you want to open a present early?"  The kids had been promised that that evening they would get to open a Christmas present even though it wasn't CHRISTMAS yet. Brad got home from work, we gathered the children in the living room and I brought out a big gift bag that was slightly wiggling. The kids all reached into the bag...then, to their amazement, they pulled out a puppy!!! They screamed so loud it scared her and she wet on Madsen. But it did not take her more than a minute to realize that she was going to be very loved by this family!

That little tiny dark puffball needed a name. Because of the color she was, which reminded us of chocolate, we thought we would name her Cocoa. But because her breed is Japanese in heritage, we changed the spelling to Koko. The hardest part of that day was going to our ward Christmas party that night and leaving poor baby Koko on her own.

What a wonderful Christmas gift! We think Suzee would like her! We know we do!