Dog pic

We're looking at various breeders. The thought is, find a good, non-puppy-mill, non-backyard breeder, develop a game plan, and then approach the homeowners association and our landlord. 

There are other dogs in the neighborhood, so we're not too worried. But with our landlord, we'd like to have more than 3 months of rental history with him. 

So, we're trying to wait. But, when you receive pictures like this one from a breeder, oy. Waiting is hard. 

And by the way, we are also looking on petfinder. Our cat monsters are all shelter or abandon adoptees, and we're very much pro-humane society. But, we're limited in many ways. The dog has to be a certain size, since we don't own. The dog has to have a pretty predictable personality, since we're renting and since we have work schedules. I know puppies don't always live up to their breed or parents, but it's a good indicator. Finally, it has to be young so we can give the best shot at him/her getting along with the cat monsters. Anyway, just to make sure I don't get any hate mail about humane society dogs. Believe me, our house woudl be full if we could.

But, to be certain, we're also being very careful with the breeders we look at. We'd prefer to get dogs whose breeders only produce a litter or two a year. We want breeders who are first looking for themselves, and then for maybe selling. We want breeders who know about their dogs and love them. No lets-try-to-make-a-buck-and-be-backyard-breeders. We met one of those last weekend and were disgusted. A breeder who loves the breed and breeds rarely only to improve the breed will not be making money on the sale of pups. So, while we may not get a society dog, we also don't want to be supporting the "evil" side. 

And with photos like the above? My heart melts.