A month ago, my oldest son Matt texted me from St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, where he lives and works as the Captain of a 120-foot charter yacht. He was coming home for a visit on April 29th, and asked what I’m sure he thought would be a laughed off kind of question:

THERE ARE A FEW PUPPIES UP FOR ADOPTION. WANT ME TO BRING YOU ONE?

Vicki Doudera here. Of course his text was accompanied by this very sweet photo.

No surprise that I found the little spotted pup adorable. Who wouldn’t?  But what was surprising (to me at least!) was my nearly immediate response.

YES!!!!!!!!!!

To which Matt then wrote:

DO YOU REALLY WANT IT?

And I said:  OF COURSE BUT WILL THEY LET YOU?

At this point, Matt felt he needed to clarify things. I’M SAYING DO YOU WANT ME TO BRING YOU A DOG. And then he sent this photo, with the query, WANT HIM?

And I said, YES! SO CUTE!

To which my responsible son asked, DO YOU REALLY HAVE TIME FOR A PUPPY?  

Well – that’s the heart of the matter, isn’t it?  Does anyone really have “time” for a puppy?  Probably not. But what hit me when he asked that question was how much I wanted time for something as wonderful and random as a puppy.  So — although I was not looking for a puppy, and had not even been entertaining the idea of a second dog (Dog #1 is Hoover and you’ve met him before — a staid 10 year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) I found myself saying yes, out of the clear blue, to Matt’s question. Yes, I have time for a puppy. Yes, I want you to bring me this little creature.Yes, yes, yes to something dropped into my lap from the universe, a.k.a. my eldest son.

Next came a few photos of the puppy. post-adoption, courtesy of Matt and his girlfriend Sarah. Here’s the puppy chilling on one of the island’s pretty beaches….being cuddled by Sarah… and keeping Matt company in front of the yacht.A few days after this photo was taken, Dempsey arrived in Maine,  only five weeks old but full of energy. A visit to the vet revealed that the pup was healthy and… another surprise… a female! We’ve been loving her ever since. Do we know “what” she is?  No clue. The puppies were abandoned, so her lineage is a big question mark. As is her ultimate size. Will she be small or big? Who knows?  But three weeks in our home and she already knows her name and the routine.  Our mystery dog is here to stay, a good reminder of why sometimes, when a question comes out of the blue, it just pays to say YES.