From commentor Mike S:
In the Spring of 2002 we lost Marta, our 14-year-old mixed breed, a medium-brown “Heinz 57” (as my father called her) rescue, to old age. That was such a terrible trauma for me that I didn’t know if I wanted to get another dog. But by July the house didn’t seem right without a dog. I began thinking seriously about getting another dog, and my wife was ready too. So I stopped by the Animal Rescue League to see who was waiting for a good home. I had walked through and looked at about 3/4 of the dogs there and none of them seemed right somehow, either too big, too small, too noisy — you know, the whole Goldilocks routine.
__
Then I saw one cute little one who put her front paws up on the fence and stuck her nose through the mesh as far as she could; she was obviously inviting me to be friends and play with her. So I asked the staff If I could meet her and take her for a walk outside and they were happy to oblige. She was somewhat shy when we got outside and mostly wanted to smell and poke around, but we got along well and I thought she was the one. The staff told me that someone else wanted to adopt her but it hadn’t gone through yet because the other potential adopter wasn’t the owner of the home where she lived and written permission from the homeowner was needed. So she was available, for now!
__
I went back with my wife the next day, she was still there. We walked her outside again and we agreed that she was the dog we wanted. But we couldn’t take her that day as my wife and I were going away all of the next day, and I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving here locked up all day in a strange laundry room as her first experience in our home. I asked if we could adopt her, pay all of the fees and even boarding fees and pick her up on the following day, when we could be home with her round the clock. No! we were told we can’t let you do that. If you adopt her you have to take her then and there. So reluctantly I said we would be back on Saturday morning and adopt her if she was still there. She was such a cute doggie-type dog I really worried that she would have gone to another home until we came back, but I knew that there are always lots of dogs in need of a home and if we didn’t get her there would be another equally deserving one soon.
__
On Saturday morning I showed up at the Rescue League’s door bright and early and found that she was still there! So I paid, and signed and took home our girl. They thought she was about 6 months old and weighed 30 lbs., so we estimated she would be on the large size for a lap dog, but it turned out she was closer to 9 months old and here final weight is 42 lbs. which is excellent lap dog size as far as I am concerned. She moved in ands settled in very well. She seemed to be already housebroken but we put here in the laundry room at night, instead of crating her for the first couple of months just to be sure. She never had an accident. To this day she almost never needs to go out to pee other than during her regular morning and evening walks after her meals and she has had exactly one accident in the house in almost 8 years.
__
We named her Tasha, and she is a smart and wonderful dog.
Early Morning Open Thread: Queen of the HousePost + Comments (36)