Thing the third: can haz dawg!
I know, getting a dog isn't a huge deal for many people. It was a huge deal for us.
Her name, at least so far, is Holly. That might change as none of us are particularly fond of it and she doesn't so much respond to it. She's a nearly-four-year-old black Lab mix. We keep trying to figure out what the rest is. Looking at the shape of her torso and the way she stands when she's trying to psych out the squirrel that I won't let her chase I think I see something like pointer/whippet/greyhound. Her aft bits are quite lean compared to her bulky Lab chest. I promise I'll post a pic Real Soon Now.
Her story, so far as we know it, is that she was gotten for a teenager who then went off to college, leaving the dog with solo Mom who had never wanted a dog in the first place. Thus she ended up at a no-kill shelter, which fostered her out to a very nice lady in Maine from whom we retrieved Holly on Saturday morning. The organization that handled the adoption (the name of which escapes me at the moment) was started to try and rescue dogs rendered homeless and orphaned by Katrina. Shelters in the Southern US tend to be kill shelters, so it's necessary to get the animals out of there ASAP in order to have time to find families for them.
Holly is nearly completely ideal for us, given that we had very particular constraints on what sort of dog we wanted. We keep waiting for the "gotcha" to show up, about which more below. We wanted a dog, not a puppy, ideally female. We wanted an even-tempered, medium-bodied dog that wouldn't be jumping on couches without invitation, wouldn't be stealing food off counters when we weren't looking, and would be comfortable being a solo dog. That includes being alone (crated) in the house for five or so hours several days a week.
We needed a dog that had at least reasonable levels of training. We're doing our own training at home - primarily working on safety things like sitting before open/close outer door and when walking sit before crossing streets. We'll probably also find a professional trainer to work with at some point. Holly seems quite bright but there are some things we don't know how to train her for, like doing her business in the pen. She's used to long walks in Maine woods and being able to poop wherever.
The process of getting to this point has been... arduous to say the least. Pygment has done yeoman work, looking at dogs, talking to various agencies. We've had a number of near misses, including two or three different agencies for which we interviewed and that then turned us down for - excuse me for being judgmental - fucking stupid reasons. Seriously, they behaved like it was their mission to stop people from adopting dogs. Yes, I get that there are people who want dogs and shouldn't have them but you know what? Those people go to pet stores and don't get the Spanish Inquisition treatment. Yes, I'm bitter.
Even beyond that we needed a dog we could know something about - most shelter dogs come with relatively blank backgrounds and unknown damage. Some of you know we tried adopting another dog from a nearby shelter a year or so ago. That one was far too much of a puppy and she turned out to have serious stranger-danger. We had to return her when she snapped at one of our kid's friends unexpectedly, and she never coped with being crated. (The fact that we returned her after she attacked a child was cited by one agency as a reason we were not approved to adopt - trufact.) We needed not to go through another trauma.
Holly came home with us Saturday morning. We got up bright and early and drove to Maine to meet her and her foster mom. I took Holly for a walk down a long driveway and by the time I came back I was pretty sure she was right for us. I felt that way at about the same level I felt the other dog was wrong. We played with her and talked with her foster mom for the better part of an hour. At the end of it I asked the kids if they wanted to have Holly as part of our family and they gave me that look that only pre-teenagers can manage, which translates to "DUH. Boy, you adults are slow."
Today is Day 4 of Holly and so far things are excellent. Stay tuned.
P.S. Holly seems to deal well with people in the house, but tends to bark when people come and go, so we'll probably have her at doggie overnight-care for our upcoming party. If you'd like to meet Holly I'd be happy to have you come over.
Her name, at least so far, is Holly. That might change as none of us are particularly fond of it and she doesn't so much respond to it. She's a nearly-four-year-old black Lab mix. We keep trying to figure out what the rest is. Looking at the shape of her torso and the way she stands when she's trying to psych out the squirrel that I won't let her chase I think I see something like pointer/whippet/greyhound. Her aft bits are quite lean compared to her bulky Lab chest. I promise I'll post a pic Real Soon Now.
Her story, so far as we know it, is that she was gotten for a teenager who then went off to college, leaving the dog with solo Mom who had never wanted a dog in the first place. Thus she ended up at a no-kill shelter, which fostered her out to a very nice lady in Maine from whom we retrieved Holly on Saturday morning. The organization that handled the adoption (the name of which escapes me at the moment) was started to try and rescue dogs rendered homeless and orphaned by Katrina. Shelters in the Southern US tend to be kill shelters, so it's necessary to get the animals out of there ASAP in order to have time to find families for them.
Holly is nearly completely ideal for us, given that we had very particular constraints on what sort of dog we wanted. We keep waiting for the "gotcha" to show up, about which more below. We wanted a dog, not a puppy, ideally female. We wanted an even-tempered, medium-bodied dog that wouldn't be jumping on couches without invitation, wouldn't be stealing food off counters when we weren't looking, and would be comfortable being a solo dog. That includes being alone (crated) in the house for five or so hours several days a week.
We needed a dog that had at least reasonable levels of training. We're doing our own training at home - primarily working on safety things like sitting before open/close outer door and when walking sit before crossing streets. We'll probably also find a professional trainer to work with at some point. Holly seems quite bright but there are some things we don't know how to train her for, like doing her business in the pen. She's used to long walks in Maine woods and being able to poop wherever.
The process of getting to this point has been... arduous to say the least. Pygment has done yeoman work, looking at dogs, talking to various agencies. We've had a number of near misses, including two or three different agencies for which we interviewed and that then turned us down for - excuse me for being judgmental - fucking stupid reasons. Seriously, they behaved like it was their mission to stop people from adopting dogs. Yes, I get that there are people who want dogs and shouldn't have them but you know what? Those people go to pet stores and don't get the Spanish Inquisition treatment. Yes, I'm bitter.
Even beyond that we needed a dog we could know something about - most shelter dogs come with relatively blank backgrounds and unknown damage. Some of you know we tried adopting another dog from a nearby shelter a year or so ago. That one was far too much of a puppy and she turned out to have serious stranger-danger. We had to return her when she snapped at one of our kid's friends unexpectedly, and she never coped with being crated. (The fact that we returned her after she attacked a child was cited by one agency as a reason we were not approved to adopt - trufact.) We needed not to go through another trauma.
Holly came home with us Saturday morning. We got up bright and early and drove to Maine to meet her and her foster mom. I took Holly for a walk down a long driveway and by the time I came back I was pretty sure she was right for us. I felt that way at about the same level I felt the other dog was wrong. We played with her and talked with her foster mom for the better part of an hour. At the end of it I asked the kids if they wanted to have Holly as part of our family and they gave me that look that only pre-teenagers can manage, which translates to "DUH. Boy, you adults are slow."
Today is Day 4 of Holly and so far things are excellent. Stay tuned.
P.S. Holly seems to deal well with people in the house, but tends to bark when people come and go, so we'll probably have her at doggie overnight-care for our upcoming party. If you'd like to meet Holly I'd be happy to have you come over.