The Weimaraner I Call My Best Friend
A Weim Named Kina
Sadly enough, she wasn't even supposed to be my dog, I never really cared for big 70 lb dogs. My roommate at the time loved this breed of dog and she was just diagnosed at age 28 with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Well coincidentally, right about that time, a woman I worked with was expecting a litter of Weimaraner puppies later on in the year, so I asked if I could have one when they got here as a present for my roommate because of her ordeal with cancer. And, even though I offered to pay for the pup, she wouldn't let me so I ended up scoring an expensive dog with a pedigree for free.
Since the wait was such a long time, my friend was on her last stretch of chemo and actually beat her cancer a week before the puppy was ready to bring home. Now, as you might already know, Weimaraners are smart dogs and you have to be on your toes or they will completely have the upper hand and rule the house. So, I read all the books about socializing, house breaking, crate training, and was ready for the challenge.
The day arrived when she was ready to come home, so after work I drove as fast as I could 30 minutes after getting off work at 6, picked her out (I already had an idea of which one I wanted because we'd agreed on the cute littlest girl)...On the car ride home I instantly feel in love with this sweet, affectionate puppy. Weimaraners aren't all that small when their 6 weeks old, compared to other breeds. She was about the length of my thigh and slept on it the whole way back.
Then we started having alpha problems around the house shortly after that. Kina took to my roommate more than she did me and absolutely refused to submit to me like I was the "pack leader". So we struggled with this for about a week. She wouldn't let me in bed with my partner/roommate, in fact she even tried to get in the middle of us and shove her paws in my back all night long. And all the while I was the one who was house training her, had her on a schedule and had her practically clicker trained already (they're highly intelligent dogs--we had ours potty trained completely in two weeks time by using a bell tied to the front door and crate training while we were at work).
So basically after months of having no life for myself because I had to be responsible for this poor puppy who was going to suffer a horrible quality of life, if I'm not there for her, she became my best friend--almost a child type responsibility for someone in their 20's. I mean Weims are very clingy, demanding, and need to be close to their owners.
Anyway, the situation with the roommate/partner/ex (whatever you want to call her) gradually went from bad to worse and we parted ways, but she waited until I wasn't home and STOLE my dog. (At this point I considered the dog mine because I put in all the work)...The AKC papers were in my name so I had no problem going to a lawyer to get her back but I settled for "joint custody" for about a year, where we swapped out every week and I didn't trust her with my dog one bit. But I figured she'd flake eventually and she did. She ended up telling me she didn't want her anymore. It kind of made me sad for Kina that she wouldn't get to see her anymore but, I'm so tired of dealing with my ex that I don't care at this point.
Anyway once the other person was out of the picture, the dog and I get along great. She is the most loyal, loving dog I have ever owned in my life. She is well behaved. We do absolutely everything together. Her favorite thing to do is go through the drive thru with me at McDonalds. She has such a funny attitude. If you aren't paying special attention to her she will go get a napkin out of the trash and just stand there in your peripheral vision where you can see she has it and wait on you to look at her. She cracks me up.
So, in conclusion, I guess the moral of the story is that you never know what you're gonna miss out on if you don't stick it out through the rough times. I'm so glad I didn't just give up on this dog when we were struggling in the beginning because she is such a loyal companion now.
