For the Love of a Dog
Pat and I attended an Adoption Day at the Lombard Vet Hospital today. The head vet at LVH also runs the DuPage County Animal Control. They had seven cats, five dogs, a rabbit, and a gerbil. The cats came in first... and sat in cages while the majority of us waited eagerly for the dogs.
The first two dogs to come by were a Dachshund and a Miniature Doberman Pincher. They were a bonded pair and if we adopted one we would have to adopt the other. Since neither dog was what we wanted, we merely looked at them and ignored them. The second dog to come in was Shadow. Shadow was a lab/pit mix. Very excited to see people, but really sweet. Third came in Eli. Eli was a beagle/lab mix. He was very loud... baying... and very excitable. And last was Iris, a lab mix who was incredibly excitable.
We found ourselves drawn to Shadow and Iris. There didn't seem to be any rules about Iris. Because Shadow had some pitbull in him, he had to go to a single dog home. We looked at Iris first. She seemed like a lover, but she had a habit of peeing when she was excited. And while she was adorable, we weren't exactly looking forward to cleaning up pee while we trained that out of her.
Shadow... was adorable. The 3 and a half year old mutt was insanely loving. He chilled out very quickly and just lay there in the hall watching everything happen. We looked at him and asked if we could take him on a walk to see how he did on a leash. They suspected he was house broken. He had all his shots and was trained for hte most part to sit and shake and that sort of thing.
The walk went well and we even got to clean up dog poop thanks to the lovely mess he left on the sidewalk. Everyone who walked in kept asking about him, but the one dog only rule kept them all away as most of them had at least one dog already. I finally looked at Pat and went, "What do you think?" and he responded, "Let's fill out the paperwork!"
As we filled out paperwork, lots of chaos happened. Most impressive, throughout the entirety, Shadow just watched while lying in the hallway. Didn't bark, didn't strain. Very very impressive dog. The paperwork filled out, we just needed to get permission from the our landlords. Pitbulls are a restricted breed in our complex. But it's very little pitbull. We suspect more boxer actually. On the paperwork, they put him down as lab mix. So he is officially a lab mix!
After spending about a half hour constantly calling the complex to ask about him, we finally reached someone and they said of course we could adopt him! So we signed everything, set up a vet appointment, and brought Shadow home!
He's been quite well behaved so far, though that could be thanks to the fact that everything is so new. We put him in the kitchen with a gate while we went to the office to do the pet deposit. When we came back, he had taken the gate down and was hanging out in the living room... running to the door to welcome us.
Bad habits noticed so far: Licks, sometimes jumps, gets on the furniture when we're not home.
Good habits: He's very happy to lie down in whatever room we're in. Stayed lying down next to the table while we ate. Very mellow. Fairly good on the leash about a minute into the walk, but likes to feel tension.
When we went to the pet store, we left him home. We closed the door to the office and bedroom. When we came back, we looked in the sliding door window and found him on the couch. Will put the kitchen chairs on the couch when we leave to keep him from doing that.
He's so adorable. And so what I know you are all waiting for, here are the pictures!
Meet Shadow!
Chewing on a toy
What's outside?
More at my photobucket!
The first two dogs to come by were a Dachshund and a Miniature Doberman Pincher. They were a bonded pair and if we adopted one we would have to adopt the other. Since neither dog was what we wanted, we merely looked at them and ignored them. The second dog to come in was Shadow. Shadow was a lab/pit mix. Very excited to see people, but really sweet. Third came in Eli. Eli was a beagle/lab mix. He was very loud... baying... and very excitable. And last was Iris, a lab mix who was incredibly excitable.
We found ourselves drawn to Shadow and Iris. There didn't seem to be any rules about Iris. Because Shadow had some pitbull in him, he had to go to a single dog home. We looked at Iris first. She seemed like a lover, but she had a habit of peeing when she was excited. And while she was adorable, we weren't exactly looking forward to cleaning up pee while we trained that out of her.
Shadow... was adorable. The 3 and a half year old mutt was insanely loving. He chilled out very quickly and just lay there in the hall watching everything happen. We looked at him and asked if we could take him on a walk to see how he did on a leash. They suspected he was house broken. He had all his shots and was trained for hte most part to sit and shake and that sort of thing.
The walk went well and we even got to clean up dog poop thanks to the lovely mess he left on the sidewalk. Everyone who walked in kept asking about him, but the one dog only rule kept them all away as most of them had at least one dog already. I finally looked at Pat and went, "What do you think?" and he responded, "Let's fill out the paperwork!"
As we filled out paperwork, lots of chaos happened. Most impressive, throughout the entirety, Shadow just watched while lying in the hallway. Didn't bark, didn't strain. Very very impressive dog. The paperwork filled out, we just needed to get permission from the our landlords. Pitbulls are a restricted breed in our complex. But it's very little pitbull. We suspect more boxer actually. On the paperwork, they put him down as lab mix. So he is officially a lab mix!
After spending about a half hour constantly calling the complex to ask about him, we finally reached someone and they said of course we could adopt him! So we signed everything, set up a vet appointment, and brought Shadow home!
He's been quite well behaved so far, though that could be thanks to the fact that everything is so new. We put him in the kitchen with a gate while we went to the office to do the pet deposit. When we came back, he had taken the gate down and was hanging out in the living room... running to the door to welcome us.
Bad habits noticed so far: Licks, sometimes jumps, gets on the furniture when we're not home.
Good habits: He's very happy to lie down in whatever room we're in. Stayed lying down next to the table while we ate. Very mellow. Fairly good on the leash about a minute into the walk, but likes to feel tension.
When we went to the pet store, we left him home. We closed the door to the office and bedroom. When we came back, we looked in the sliding door window and found him on the couch. Will put the kitchen chairs on the couch when we leave to keep him from doing that.
He's so adorable. And so what I know you are all waiting for, here are the pictures!
Meet Shadow!
Chewing on a toy
What's outside?
More at my photobucket!