Our First Meeting: Falling in Love

Our First Meeting: Falling in Love

In December 1997 I was just about to turn 25 years old and for the first time in my life I was about to fall in love. I was attending Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA pursuing my law degree and MBA. While I truly loved living in California, I missed my family and friends. Even more I had always wanted a dog—and some might even say that I had threatened my parents that as soon as I could I would get one of my own.

Earlier that year my friend Mando and I had gone to New York City to look for jobs for the following year when we graduated. I remember telling Mando on that trip that I was going to get a dog—and that dog would be a chocolate lab named Hershey.

The school year began again in late August of 1997. I was anxious to receive and accept a job offer for the following year. However, my desire to land a job early in the school year had more to do with getting my first dog and less to do with securing my future. You see, I always knew I would be employable. What I truly wanted was to accept a job offer early enough in the school year to allow me to worry less about the academic calendar and more about training and spending time with a new puppy.

In November of 1997 I accepted my first full time job, clearing the way for the most meaningful purchase of my life. The plan was to find my new friend as soon as exams had finished in early December—a task that was made more difficult by President Bill Clinton.

In early December 1997, President Clinton opened the White House and his family to its newest member—a 3-month old chocolate lab named Buddy. Because chocolate labs were the rarest of all labs and Clinton was enormously popular, what followed might best be described as the 101 Dalmatians Effect. Each time the movie 101 Dalmatians was released, swarms of people rushed to get one of these lovable spotted dogs—making the available supply of these dogs very limited.

As I called around to breeders in Southern California I found that most of them either didn’t breed chocolate labs (black and yellow only) or the chocolate labs they did have were all spoken for. Throughout my research, breeder after breeder kept referring me to the same woman who specialized in breeding chocolate labs. I had called this woman (If I remember correctly her name was Winnie) and left a message. I continued to call around to different breeders only to find the same answers over and over again. Although only about an hour had gone by since the time I left Winnie the first message, I decided to call again—and sure enough she answered the phone. Winne said that she had no chocolate lab puppies available but she did breed one of her champion male dogs to a family dog in Simi Valley, CA. Winnie then passed along the number to Michael and Suzanne Thuotte.

After speaking to Thuotte’s I had planned a trip out to their house in Simi Valley the next day. I lay awake in my bed that night unable to sleep. I was so excited, yet despite the excitement I could have never known how that trip to Simi Valley would change my life forever and for the better.

When I arrived at the Thuotte’s home they took me to their garage where their dog named Belle (formal name Lady Belle Michelle) was nursing her seven chocolate puppies—five female and two male. Belle was a beautiful chocolate lab with a great disposition. She had her tail wrapped in gauze because her teething puppies insisted on nibbling on her tail, which caused her great pain.

Falling in love: All of Belle’s puppies were so cute and simply irresistible. In fact, one might think that actually picking a single puppy out of the five that were available (three females and two males) would have been a difficult task—but it wasn’t. I held each of the puppies in my arms cradling them like a baby. The three females did not seem interested in being held in that way and one of the males made snorting noises when cradled. And then there was my puppy. When I picked him up and cradled him he relaxed in my arms and looked up at me as if to say: “I’m home. Take me with you.” It was at that very moment that I fell in love. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and I would like to believe that he fell in love at that moment too.

Unfortunately, my puppy had not been fully weaned and I would have to wait until January 18, 1998 to pick him up. I gave the Thuotte’s a deposit and then went to a local store to buy a cat collar and some nail polish. We painted one of his nails and put that cat collar around his neck so he could be easily identified amongst his brother and sisters as being “spoken for”.

Over the Christmas holidays I told no one that I was about to get a dog. As I had told Mando in the spring of 1997 I had planned to name him Hershey. But as I quietly looked into the best names for chocolate labs one thing became very clear—it seemed like at least half the chocolate labs were already named Hershey. The search continued for a name that would be suitable and hopefully unique.

As the school started again in January I still had not picked out a name for my new puppy. I began to think that his name should be more than just a name, it should reflect the type of dog that I wanted—friendly, loving, loyal and have the heart of gold. One day I was reading the paper or watching TV (I can’t remember which one), and realized that the NHL All Star Game would be played during my first weekend as an official dog owner.

I began to research the origins of the NHL All Star Game and through that research found his name. In 1933 Ace Bailey was hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs. During a game in December, Bailey was severely injured by Boston’s Eddie Shore in retaliation for a hit that Shore had received from Toronto’s Red Horner. The injury fractured Bailey’s skull and ended his hockey career. In February 1934 the NHL hosted the first-ever All Star game as a fundraiser to benefit Ace Bailey and his family. Before the game Eddie Shore skated over to the boards where Ace Bailey was seated. To the surprise of many Ace Bailey stood up and shook hands with Shore, forgiving him for what happened just a few months earlier. From that point on, Ace Bailey was a legend—mostly due to the kindness in his heart and his ability to forgive.

Could there ever be a more meaningful name for my new puppy? The concept of forgiveness and love are two of the most important qualities in life. They are not only qualities that I had hoped to have in a dog, they were ideals that I had strived for—and many times had fallen short.

Beyond the name Ace Bailey, I felt his name should include some reference to his lineage. This practice is often followed when naming racehorses, whereby a new foal takes on part of the name of one of its parents. So it was decided. His name would be Belle’s Ace Bailey, named after the great Toronto Maple Leaf and his mother Lady Belle Michelle.

On the night of January 17, 1998 I had to deal with the same insomnia that had plagued me the night before my first trip to Simi Valley, CA. As I said before, I truly had no way of knowing just how much my life would change after adopting Bailey.