Dragon Heart Woods

Leeim

Here's the story of Leeim the wonder dog. 

In July of 2001, I went to Cedar Hollow English Jack Russells to pick up Taz from getting bred to Tussler.  Every time I went there, I looked at the puppies, I had my own puppies regularly, so I was never tempted, they were just so cute and fun to look at and play with. This fateful time was different.

A friend of mine went with me for the drive and when we walked into the puppy room, my eyes almost instantly locked with one of the puppies. He was sitting in the middle of the pen, just waiting, watching and intently staring at me. I picked him up and he was so satisfying to hold and cuddle. I held him in my hands, belly up and he just gazed into my eyes, with this calm look of absolute love in his eyes.

I tried picking up other puppies, but they just didn't have the same feel. I even closed my eyes and had my friend hand me different puppies, I could tell this special puppy every time. Sharon, the owner of Cedar Hollow, remarked "it's interesting that you keep picking up that puppy, if he had the right plumbing, I'd keep him myself, but he's a boy"  I asked her if he could be bred to Taz, she looked things up and said yes, he's not related to Taz, but seriously, you don't need a puppy, my friend agreed. I was not so sure.

We ended up driving away, with Taz, but no little white puppy with a brown ear and eye patch. Sharon's driveway is long and the gate is out of sight of the house, I stopped the car at the gate and told my friend "I feel like I'm leaving my heart behind, I don't think I can leave that puppy " we talked for about half an hour about whether or not I needed that puppy, sitting by the gate at the end of that long driveway. In the end, I turned around and went back to purchase my puppy, that I didn't need, but wanted so desperately.

On the way home, he insisted to be on my shoulder. I was driving and my friend tried to hold him, but he had to be on me. When we got home, Timmy was none too impressed with our new addition, however, they soon became fast friends. I named our new puppy William, not thinking at the time, that our barn cat was Willy. I operated a riding school at the time and pretty soon, my adorable little puppy was coming to Willy, here kitty, kitty... 

We all did it, Willy, here kitty, kitty just rolled of our lips. Poor Willy the cat was highly offended! I decided to change the puppy's name, but to what? Luckily, I ran into a friend of mine at the growers market, I had my new puppy with me and I was telling her about the mix up with the puppy's name. It just so happened that my friend was Irish! She instantly suggested that I change his name to Leeim, for Leeim is Celtic for William! Awesome, problem solved, little William became Leeim and my poor barn cat once again had her name back. 

I know Leeim is spelled oddly, there's a story behind that.

When little Leeim was about six months, I got a phone call from a friend who was an editor with the local paper, she asked if I had a little dog that would wear costumes.

I told her the smallest dog I had was a puppy and yes, he'd wear anything. She asked if I would bring him into the paper for a photo shoot. They had a Great Dane and wanted something much smaller, Leeim was it. Leeim was a perfect model and everyone adored him. Everything went perfect until the end, as we were leaving, one of the reporters asked me (the world's worst speller) how to spell Leeim...

I had no clue, neither did anyone else in the room, so I guessed, L-e-e-i-m, Lee im, right?  Well, the spelling stuck. In the article they mentioned that the Great Dane's name was Duke, there were hundreds of Dukes listed with the Jackson County Animal Control, but little Leeim was unique. Yeah, because everyone else knows how Leeim is supposed to be spelled... I took a lot of teasing over that one.