Hi Aly,

I have a question and I am hoping either you or someone else will have an answer for me...I have a good friend who just lost her puppy (the puppy was actually Ritz's littermate) and my friend is devistated. The pup had a birth defect and had to be put to sleep due to fluid in her brain, and she was only a tender 8 weeks old. My friend is a wonderful woman and putting her puppy to sleep devistated her. She's the type of person that would do anything for anyone, very generous, kind and loving. It's one of those "why did this have to happen to such an incredible person" instances. Well, I have been searching and searching for a puppy for her to help fill that horrible void in her life....I call into several shelters, browse petfinder.com, look in the papers on a daily basis. My friend is an older lady (she's in her 60's) and she has her heart set on a female. She really does not want a male dog, and since she's older, and she has young grandchildren she needs a fairly mellow, gentle, and small sized dog. Problem is there are no female lap dogs ANYWHERE! I have considered buying her a small lap dog, and have checked breeders of Caviler King Charles Spaniels ($1400), Maltese ($800) and shih tzus ($600). I want to surprise her with a puppy but those pure breed pups are so expensive that it's hard for me to do. We are conserving our funds now for our house and that just seems like not only alot of money, but I really don't like to buy purebreeds when there are shelters loaded with homeless dogs. Are female, lap sized, mellow, gentle puppies as hard to find as it seems? Or am I just looking in all the wrong places? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Leslie