well, i have always wanted a dog and always begged my dad for one. to kind of get me out of the dog thing, he bought me an aquarium full of fish. i was about 10 and fish were "so cool" but i eventually got back into the dog thing and kept bugging my dad about it. two years ago, they opened a pet store near my house that sold rats and fish and little animals like that. i used to go in every day after school to play with the mice. (weird, huh?) and started to want one. my dad agreed to check them out so we went to this huge pet store. when we were there, there was a little sheltie in one of the cages jumping around. we all loved the dog but my dad bought me birds instead. that's how i got my two lil' parakeets. after a loooot of begging, he gave in. during the summer, i researched on shelties and found a breeder, but all the pups were spoken for. we visited shelters and evetually bought a dog at a "breeder" (it looked more like a puppy mill) and kept him for a day. he was too big for us and we brought him to the shelter. i feel better knowing we rescued him from that lady. anyways, i went back to the website of that breeder and my mom and her kept in touch all summer until we reserved mickey. ta-dah! that's my story. lol