Ever since I was a teenager, I knew I wanted an OES. I even had his name picked out, NewBomb after a character NewBomb Turk, in a 1979 movie called Hollywood Knights. Fast forward 35 years. It was the right time to finally get him. We found a breeder in South Carolina. In early February of 2006, I went down there and picked him out. I had already decided which one I wanted from his picture on the website. He was a pure snowcap, black body and white feet. My youngest daughter described him as wearing black sweatpants. We brought him home at 10 weeks in March. He was the typical OES puppy, always bouncing around and happy. He had this amazing look when he was watching you. If you called him Newboo and used a high pitched voice he would tilt his head to one side like 'huh?'. He was spoiled beyond belief. His look was stunning, so much so that any time we went anywhere people would stop and ask about him. Evidently OES puppies aren't very prevalent in Charlotte. Going to PetSmart with him was always an adventure. It took us usually 20-30 minutes longer to shop just because of all the questions. Often times when we had him groomed, people would line up outside the window to watch. Again my youngest daughter hit it on the head; it was like travelling with Elvis!

In April 2006, Newbie and I went to the airport to pick up my now wife, Wendy. We waited outside for her. When she came out and said hi to Newbie he jumped up and nipped at her face. We knew right away something was very wrong. Prior to that he would barely bark at people. We rushed him the Carolina Veterinary Specialists that night and they admitted him. We visited him on Saturday for a little while and he seemed ok. When we picked him up Sunday, the doctor gave us the news. They believed he had a shunt in his liver. His body had become toxic with ammonia because of the shunt. We asked our options. Basically we had two, take him to Raleigh to the State Veterinary College and have them operate on him. With that option there was less than a 50% chance of him surviving the operation and even less of a chance they would find the shunt. Our other scenario was to give him two medicines daily and hope for the best. He may live a week, he may live 10 years. We went with the medicine option.

Over the next months we had wonderful times with him. We took him up to upstate NY to get my kids for the summer. We took him to a waterfall up there and he followed my daughter right in the water. When we got back to the house the kids ran around the yard and the now 5 month old NewBomb was 'herding' them trying to turn them around. Classic OES!

Over the months, Newbie would have 'episodes' as we referred to them because of the shunt. He would pace for hours at a time, looking catatonic almost. Whenever he had one, we would move his cage downstairs to the family room and put him inside so he didn't hurt himself. Typically within a day he would be back to his normal self, prancing around and stealing shoes! We had to be very careful with his diet and used only Naturex, 'all natural'. In February 2007, our boy fell victim to the melamine issues from China. There was melamine in the food we were giving him. Early that month I came home from work to find he had died. I had two calls to make, one to my fiancé which was difficult at best. The worst was to tell my kids. They were devastated as were we. He lived a wonderful 13 months. He gave us nothing but happiness, smiles and memories. Since that time we have gotten another OES, Cozmo who continues to make us laugh in the same way NewBomb did. We know Newbie is up there giving Cozmo pointers on how to entertain us all and we love him for it.

Wendy and Pat Kiernan