Chapter 1

In which we meet Plato and the story begins...
On October 17, we met Plato for the first time. Plato is a male fawn boxer who, at this time, was about 5 weeks old. He is from Karen and Jeff Ontell's Silkwood Boxers, in Boxford, MA.

We had originally intended to get a female, but of the females in the litter one was a flashy fawn with markings sufficient to be of interest to the show community and the other two were checked. I know, I know. But my Dad is a traditionalist and he doesn't think a white boxer is 'really' a boxer. And I guess I like fawns better too. In any case, Plato was a real hit with us.

My wife Alisa (here holding Plato) took a lot of convincing before she was willing to have us get a boxer. My family always had boxers when I was growing up and it was always hard for me to imagine ever having any other kind of dog.

The books say that you should look for the "most outgoing puppy" in the litter. Plato was perhaps not the most outgoing, but he seemed to enjoy being handled and quickly seemed at ease with all of us.

We've agreed on the name Plato for him and Karen tells me that they will start using that name for him between now and when we pick him up in a couple of weeks. I suggested the name Plato for a couple of reasons. The overt reason was a line in the movie 'A Fish Called Wanda' where Jamie Lee Curtis is chastising Kevin Kline for having made a lot of mistakes. In trying to get him to think about what course of action he should now take, she says, "Tell me Otto, what would Plato do?" This has become a byword in our house whenever we're evaluating the merits of different actions. The other reason I wanted to name him Plato is because Alisa has never thought boxers were smart and that by naming him Plato it would give him as much help as possible in that department.
My younger son Daniel was ecstatic to be amongst all the puppies. His first word was "Woof!" and the whole time we were there, he walked around pointing at the dogs saying, "Woof! Woof!"
My older son Charlie did exceptionally well with the puppies. He was gentle and careful to support them when he picked them up. He loved all of the puppies and would have been happy to have all of them come home with us.
Daniel is at the age that if Charlie is doing something then Daniel wants to do it too. He loved the puppies so much it was hard for us to get him to sit down to hold them.
Five week old puppies don't romp much, but after playing with us for a little while, Plato was all tired out and fell asleep on Alisa's lap. What an adorable little face! We should be able to go back and pick him up just before Halloween. We can't wait.
Revised 10/18/99 Brewer