Thanks ya'll.
OMG *dies* Westie puppy cuteness! We need more
What's his name? What breeder did you get him from (too personal you can ignore
)?
His name's Riley ... my sister named him b/c we suck at naming. (Our Turkish Angora is Y.T. Cat, as in "whitey cat", ... so he may have ended up Y.T. Dog ::sigh:: ) Others suggested typical Scottish names of every male Westie or stuff like Snowball, Snowy, Frosty, ... too stereotypical. Sis named him for what she heard on speaker phone ... him getting riled up and doing his zoomy laps around the house.
He's from a small hobby breeder recognized by WHWTCA but with no kennel name. We planned a puppy when we still had our senior Golden, Cheyenne. She loved puppies and would have been a big help raising him.
My guy wanted either a Scottie, Westie, or Cairn, in that order. I was not keen on a terrier because we have cats. But research from breeders, rescue and others said Westies do well with cats if raised with them from puppyhood ... but Scotties and Cairns can still be iffy. We hadn't even put our names on any list yet when we suddenly lost Cheyenne ... then "her" cat Peanut a few weeks later. (Cheyenne from her geriatric heart, Peanut from grief over Cheyenne ... vets found nothing wrong but that cat was wasting away.) Everything was put on indefinite hold.
2 1/2 months later one of my guy's colleagues mentioned this small hobby breeder, a friend who had a buyer back-out. Small litter with one female who went to the buyer on top of the list, the rest took males except one.
That buyer hemmed and hawed (probably b/c of non-refundable deposit) then finally refused to "settle" for a male, and the breeder was not planning another litter anytime soon. Strangely enough we were previously advised to get a male b/c we were told Westie females are better hunters, the males tend to be softer. All went well so that was it ... we had our puppy ... the male someone else refused. He came already crate-trained, collar-trained and socialized with kids and other dogs from the beginning ... he was 9 1/2 weeks old.
Strange thing was that we lost Cheyenne suddenly on Father's Day ... the first Father's Day without my own Dad, who had passed away shortly before last Christmas. The day Riley was brought home in August was the day that would have been my Dad's next birthday.