"All 200 Pounds Of Me"

No, I do not weigh 200 pounds.

Last night, Joey called around to try to find a Shih-Tzu breeder in our area. He started by calling the president of our area kennel club, some guy named Larry.

"Hello, is Larry there?" Joey asked politely.

"All 200 pounds of me," came the jovial reply. (I could hear it from where I was standing at the sink and Joey was sitting on the couch!)

The conversation spiraled downard from there. (Larry does not pronounce Shih-Tzu correctly; in fact, he pronounces it quite far from correctly.) He was a nut and a half, but Joey was laughing the entire time. Larry did give us a number of a breeder in our area, though.

We called that lady--no puppies for 2 months. Even after that, we'd have to wait another 3 months to get one. She gave us a number of a breeder in my hometown, so we called that lady.

The second lady was extremely nice. (She lives about 5 miles from where I grew up, actually.) I could hear the babies yipping and yapping in the background. We got to chatting and she slipped into our conversation, "They go for $600 apiece."

I didn't understand her at first.

"Excuse me?"

"They puppies, they go for $600 apiece."

My mind started working really fast. There was no possible way I wanted a $600 puppy. I don't want to show the crazy thing, I just want it to be cute and cuddly! Somehow, I hemmed and hawed my way out of that conversation real fast.

"Joey, she wants $600! I'll drive the 3 hours to that kennel up north and pay $325 any day before I pay $600 for a puppy."

"No kidding."

And so it was decided. We're probably getting #11. http://www.agreatdog.com/shihtzupuppies.html