It All Started with Technology
By: Taylor Vinge
5th Grade

“Taylor, come here!” my Mom yelled. “Why?” I asked. ”I want to show you something on the computer”, Mom answered. That’s how it all started I didn’t know what was coming, but I knew it was going to be big.
You see my mom was looking for the perfect dog for her. She had been looking for a while. I had no idea that what kind it was going to be. When I walked up to the computer, I saw it. It looked like a monster, but not mean, just big. Believe it or not, it actually looked gentle. My mom said it was called a “Newfoundland”.
When I looked at the information about them, it said that they had rescued people from drowning and had pulled stranded boats onto shore. I was amazed that a dog could do so much! The site gave my mom a name and number to call, and they would give more information on them, and that is just what she did.
When my mom called the number, Ms. Sharon answered and told her about the temperaments and attitudes that this kind of dog has. She said they were very sweet and kind. She also told my mom to contact another breeder that lived down in Bell, Florida. The breeder’s name was Ms. Gerri.
When my mom contacted Ms. Gerri, she said she would be at a dog show near where we live in Valdosta, and that we could come and meet her and her Newfoundland, “Stella”.



When my mom got to the dog show she saw Stella and was amazed at how big she was. My mom talked to Ms. Gerri and Ms. Gerri also invited us to come to her house down in Florida. My mom took her up on her invitation, and went for a visit. When she got to the house she found out that Ms. Gerri owned a lot of land. She also saw lots of Newfoundlands barking in Ms. Gerri’s backyard. When she pulled up and parked her car, she walked up to the front door. When Ms. Gerri opened the door, it was like a cannon went off! Dogs spewed out of that door before we knew what happened. They were all Newfies, except for a couple of strays. There were 3 male Newfies and they were huge! Their names were Buddy, Brando, and Roy. There were also a few females. Their names were Ellie and Stella. “Of course, you remember Stella”, Ms. Gerri said. She invited us in and we saw even more Newfoundlands in crates! After a couple of hours, we decided that we were getting tired and were going to head on home. Ms. Gerri said that if everything worked out that Stella and Roy would become parents. So, about a month later, we heard from Ms. Gerri. She said that we would have a puppy in a few months. We were very excited!



We had to go to the beach like we do every summer, so over the three weeks that we were there, my mom was in agony about getting a puppy. She called Ms. Gerri almost every day to check on the puppies.
A couple of months later, we went down to Ms. Gerri’s to get one of the puppies. When we got there, my mom was trying to figure out which puppy she wanted. It was between a male, “Porkie”, and a female, ”Petunia”. Ms. Gerri helped my mom with the decision, and we got “Petunia”. My mom thought that the name of a little flower was weird for a very big dog, so she renamed her “Darcy”. When we got home with Darcy, the first thing she did was get into the wet shower and went to sleep. I looked at her and thought, “That’s our puppy!”



THE END!

Photos published with kind permission of photographer Victoria English, 2126 Lakeshore Dr., Valdosta, GA 31602. For album click here.