Harley's Story

I almost forgot to share our "how we got Harley" story. Again, just to clarify, my life is NOT boring. I may look like it is and some days it is, but the majority of the time it is NOT! That said, sit back and try to relax because I wasn't at the time.

Several months ago we started looking at puppies. We had actually wanted one last year after we lost Toree but with all our kitchen remodeling we didn't think it a wise idea. So we began looking at a website (http://www.lancasterpuppies.com/) - just in case you want to go and see some cuties! When we were on there, I saw the cutest black lab named Steve (seriously the CUTEST! There were NO others even as cute as him). I would go on there to look at him and then finally I asked Chris if he would please call to see if Steve was still available. Well, the next day he came home and said that he had called but the man said that someone had already sent a check in for him but if the family decided to not get him, he would call and let Chris know. Well, to say the least, I was disappointed! So back on I went but I found not one puppy even close to Steve. Sadness!

Well, that weekend Chris said we were going to go on a "date" and we would be gone for a couple hours. Side note: 1) He wanted to blindfold me but carsickness took over before we even got in the car with that thought! 2) We were leaving for vacation the next day and I had nothing packed (let alone washed). So...we head out and I do note that we are heading toward Lancaster but I wasn't sure what for since Steve is gone. Just going with the flow at that point. Oh--did I mention that before we left Chris went to get directions and when he got back in the car he commented that he was a little worried that he might not have the right directions???

When we get to Lancaster we pull up to a farm house and Chris gets out and says he will be right back. Well, when he comes back he says that we went to the wrong farmhouse and we have to go to the dairy farm down the road. I'm thinking "Are we buying a cow??" When we pull up to the farmhouse I notice that the mailbox says Nolts which is the name of the family selling Steve (now called Harley - yup he is our puppy!). So, of course, I'm like "You lied to me!" Laughing, he says no, he really did call and ask about Steve but... he pretended to be someone else so that the man would say he was taken but would call Chris..blah, blah. So Chris didn't lie to me - he was just sneaky! :) He had taken the last check out of the checkbook and sent it to the guy. Smooth!

Back to the story: Farmhouse #2 was also not the correct farmhouse (they did have golden retrievers for sale if we wanted one of them - no thanks - we want Steve!) but there was a Nolts down the road. Ok, so I must insert the reason for all the wrong farmhouses. After Chris paid for Harley, the guy took the posting off the computer and so Chris had to go by memory of where the people lived.

Farmhouse #3: the Nolts are an elderly couple with no black lab puppies. Panic is starting to set in since we can't find the puppy but they have our check. These Nolts were extremely friendly and invited us in while Mrs. Nolts called all the other Nolts in the phone book to see if they were selling black lab puppies. Nope, but her son-in-law, Irvin Rife, might know but alas, he could be out picking cauliflower for Christmas dinner. While we wait for Irvin to come back in, she gave us a tour of her son's painting studio. He has physical difficulties so he paints, beautifully I might add, with his mouth. We were at their house for sometime before we decided to drive by to check to see if Irvin is back in.

Farmhouse #4: Irvin Rife has no black labs but we should try Weaver's Turkey Farm down the road a bit.

Farmhouse #5 (Aka: turkey farm): Mr. Weaver doesn't have any black labs but maybe his brother does. Funny thing: Chris asked him if his brother's last name was Nolts (we were VERY desperate at this time). Mr. Weaver looked at him like he was crazy and said very slowly, "No, his name is Weaver." Haha! Oh, but maybe one of his employees has his laptop so we can look on our bank website to see if the check has cleared and we can at least get the correct Nolt's name. No laptop, but he will look up the library in the phone book (he looked under the "L's" for Lancaster Library). After I helped him find it, we set off for the library.

Library: Sign said "Welcome, come in" but the door is locked. Have I mentioned we have now been looking for 2 1/2 hours??? What now? A menonite-looking girl was on her laptop outside the library and so Chris asked her if we could use it. She graciously allowed 2 strange harried people to use it. Well, when I went on our bank website, I was so stressed that I couldn't remember the password. So...we went back to lancasterpuppies.com website and thankfully, there was still 1 of Harley's sisters up for sale.

So now we have the correct name and phone number of Harley's then-owners. Did I also mention I had forgotten my cell phone and Chris' phone had died? Yeah. So we had to find a pay phone. Didn't know they were even still around but we finally found one. I wish the story from here was simply that Mr. Nolts was just around the corner and we got there. Oh no! He lived on the other side of Lancaster and his directions went like this: at the steep hill with a stop sign at the bottom, turn right. Every hill - "Does this hill look steep?" "Nope not it, no stop sign at the bottom." "He better be the cutest dog EVER!!!"

Several stops later to ask for more directions, we made it to the correct Nolt's house (Farmhouse #6). Oh, the correct Nolts live on Rife Road (Chris had mentioned that Irvin Rife sounded familiar). We spent 10 minutes with Harley and had to leave to get back home for 2 Christmas parties and finish getting ready for vacation.

2 hour drive to Lancaster
3 hours looking for Harley
6 houses and 1 library
10 minutes with Harley
2 hour drive back home

Thankfully he IS the cutest dog EVER!