Today my Booby is 6 years old. LOL! I call him my Booby, or teeny little booby-guy. Actually he has more nicknames than anyone I know. I still remember the day he was born, he was such a little doll! So cute, tender and sweet! They're always cutest when they are really tiny and don't have their eyes open yet. Vegas came at a time when I really needed something to cuddle. My Groucho had just died and I was missing her terribly bad. I was so used to Groucho sleeping under my arms at night that when I did not have her anymore, I could not sleep. I spent several sleepless, melancholy nights hoping and praying that Odessa, who was expecting at that time, would have a nice baby for me to cuddle with. When Vegas arrived, it was just as exciting as getting any new puppy. I remember how long it took me to come up with a good name for him. His first name was Buddy, and my sis had picked it out. I knew that was not the name I wanted to give him permanently though. I love and dwell on creativity, so I wanted a less common, more creative name for him. It took a couple of days, but I finally decided to call him Vegas, after the 2005 INXS song, Pretty Vegas. In fact, his full registered name is TG's Li'l Pretty Vegas. TG's was my kennel name back then, and his lines are in the "Li'l" lines of Will-O'Wisp. So I decided those would be his prefixes.
Vegas became the last puppy to be produced by our kennel, and I must say even I am impressed with him! He would have made a good show dog. But after Groucho died, my interest in breeding began to wane. Groucho too was pregnant when she died, and according to the vet, she had 4 babies inside her. I was counting so heavily on those being future breeders (as well as Vegas) that I felt when she and those babies were gone, it was an enormous set-back for the future of our kennel. If Vegas had turned out to be a female, I might have thought differently. I could have just hired stud service for her and built up from there. But Vegas turned out to be a boy, so I felt it was the end of our kennel for sure. For a short time, I thought about getting his championship and just hiring him out for stud service because his lines were so good, I didn't want to just throw them away. Then possibly I could have traded those services for future female offspring of his, but that would be like too much inbreeding, and I didn't want that. Not in my kennel! I don't mind line-breeding, but no inbreeding!
Other circumstances also made me want to quit. For one thing, finding out what douchebags most show breeders are. Also, around the time Vegas was 6 months old, my supervisor was talking about getting our stories online, so I had to do the illustrations and scanning for those, and I just simply did not have time anymore to go to every dog show that came close to my area every weekend. Thus I just didn't have time to train Vegas to become a show dog. Nor the desire. I still love my booby, part of that love is my just keeping him here with me, and not sending him off to shows. He has more fun at home anyways. He has his toys that he loves playing with, he has his treats occasionally, he has his family--me and Minnie, he has his friends in the dog park that he likes chasing, he's just much happier here than he would be going across country being shown. So when Vegas was about a year old, I got him neutered.
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