Why "Tristan?" Because of the BBC series "All Creatures Great and Small" as well as the "All Creatures . . . " books by James Herriot [Alfred Wight].
     We've always picked out dog names before we've had the dogs: Ollie and Stan, Woodhouse, Siegfried and Tristan, Powell and Harlow.
     Siegfried just isn't right for a Scottish Terrier. If, or when, we get a long-haired dauschund, we'll name her Siegfried. So, that left Tristan, Powell, or Harlow. If we were to get another wheaton-colored Scottie, Mary Ann says she'd be Harlow. I guess that would be "Harry" for short. But, we probably won't and therein hangs the tale from the Test Subject splash page.
     Which is Tris? We're not sure. We think it's the pup on your right since she seems to have some brindle on her neck, but we're not sure. Heck, we'll take either one.
     After contacting Lisa at Scotland Yard Kennels near Toledo, Ohio, we found we were third on the list for the next litter. Since we wanted an ebony female, are chances weren't high. To clinch our place in line, we sent Linda a check for $100. Turns out that our odds for getting a pup from this litter may only have been as high as 50/50.
     Then luck smiled upon us. Seems that Lisa is co-owner of another litter that was just born. Lisa's stud was the father and the dam belonged to a friend of hers who was only breeding her bitch once for pups for her relatives. Lisa knew the dam's lineage and it was good.
     When the pups were born, there was a female who may have some brindle in her coat as well as some white between her toes. Too impure for what the relatives wanted, but fine with us. Lisa called and asked if we wanted the pup. We took her offer immediately. Lisa will be raising the pup and will give us the same health guarantee she offers for her own puppies. Sounds good to us.
     We'll be picking up Tris about May 1, 2004. Then it's two weeks off for Mary Ann to work our training magic and then I'll take two weeks off. After that I'll be coming home at noon to take care of the pup and Pi until Tris gets old enough to make it through a day on her own.
     Personally, I don't know whether to feel happy or full of dread. Pi was a handful – see Raising Pi for the details – so I hope Tris is easier.
     That's Peter Davison portraying Tristan Farnon from the "All Creatures" series. No, he's holding pigs, not Bull Terrier puppies.
Here's Tristan a few weeks after we got her. As you can see, her ears haven't pricked yet. She was the first Scottie we had whose ears weren't fully erect when we got her.
       When we arrived at the breeder's home on the outskirts of Toledo, it was a cool and wet April day. The breeder had Tristan inside in a playpen. She picked Tris up and handed her to me [Pete] and she felt like she didn't weigh anything. In fact, when we took her to the vet the next day, she weighed in at 5.5 pounds. A little more than a sack of sugar. I didn't believe it. It felt like she was 18 ounces.
       When I first held her, she shivered, probably from fear. All of these new people and all. On the ride home on the turnpike, she sat and laid in my lap, napping off and on. We stopped at a turnpike plaza to give her water an a chance to relieve herself. She lapped at the water out of curiosity and didn't know what to do in the dog rest area. Luckily, there were no unfortunate incidents in the car.
       Tris is a toy hound. All toys belong to her. Even those Pi might be chewing at the time. She had no trouble asserting her authority over Pi. Here was a puppy, a tenth the size of Picard, running poor Pi ragged. Pi acted as if we'd brought home a particularly nasty stuffed toy that barked at her and nipped her.
       Pi would retreat to the love seat or go upstairs since Tris could neither jump up onto the furniture or negotiate the stairs. Poor Pi.
       Since then, Pi and Tris have come to a negotiated understanding, although Tris will still jump on Pi's head an Pi will tolerate it. Believe me, we did our best to keep Pi ahead of Tris in the pack order, but despite all we could do, Tris wrested a place ahead of Pi. It was odd, considering Pi's history. As a puppy, she immediately claimed dominance over Woodie, even going so far as to hump her. That was something strange since both Woodie and Pi were females. Mysterious are the ways of dogs.
Tristan is a jealous dog. Here she is on a stack of Nylabone toys she accumulated and then upon which she fell asleep. It reminded us of the scene in "A Christmas Story" where Randy falls asleep on his Xmas gifts.

This is Tristan at eight months. She's pretty much full-grown and weighs in at about 18 pounds. She's the smallest Scottie we've had.
       Our groomers, who have taken care of our Scotties since we first had Ollie, lost their Scottie of seven years just after we got Tristan. We convinced them to get another. They did, Joanie. She and Tristan have "play dates." These are mostly Scotties being Scotties: jumping on each other, chewing each others ears, an generally acting like fools. However, even though Joanie is at least two months younger than Tristan, she looks to be much bigger, eventually.
       Tristan is closer to the size of the Scotties we've been seeing at dog shows, a much smaller dog, probably not getting to be more than 20 pounds.
       This picture? That's a Nylabone ring on her head. No, we didn't pose her like that. She likes to flip the ring over her noggin so she can chew it without having to brace it or hold it.
       Tris is also the most "talkative" dog we've had. If she feels that she's not getting her due, she'll throw her head back and give us a growly kind of bark: Rrrurr, rrurr, rrurr. She also feels the need to bark whenever she hears any of the stupid dogs in the neighborhood yapping. And, we've got lots of those.

For more Tristan photos, go here