Save A Life – Adopt A Shelter Pet
The Story Of My Day

My beautiful friend Angela, turned me onto a Pound Puppy adoption event today at a local PetSmart. It was an hour and 10-minute drive from home, but I figured there must be a reason I should go. I checked out the Chesterfield Human Society shelter and their Facebook page where they had posted a few pictures of the puppies they’d be bringing to the store. One of them caught my attention. So today, on a Saturday, I got up at 7:20, got ready, made my morning stops and headed south.

This past November we lost my beloved dalmatian Rascal to a blood clot. In 2011, we lost her big sister Destinie to a stroke. But these past 6 months have been the first time in my life I haven’t had a dog with me. It’s been hard. Tougher than I expected actually. And that feeling probably prolonged the grieving longer than I would have liked.

Destinie was an AKC registered Dalmatian with some Championship parents and grand parents. But she had a black patch over her left eye. These big patches are considered to be a flaw in AKC Dalmatians and disqualifies them in dog shows. I thought her patch was great and still do. When we went looking for a companion for Destinie, we looked for another Patch Puppy. That’s when we found out about Rascal, who had two patches, each covering both of her entire ears. She too was an AKC registered Dalmatian and had Championship parents. But those solid black ears kept her from the show ring.

But investing in a new AKC Dalmatian wasn’t going to happen this year. Typically patch puppies aren’t as costly as their “perfect” siblings and are adopted by people like me at a reduced price. That practice seems to have fallen by the way side in the past few years. I’m sorry, but I’m not paying $2,000 for a dog. Unless I win the jackpot lottery and even then, I don’t know.

I figured the day would come when I was ready to bring a new 4 legged doggie child into our home again. And I’d know when the time was right to do so. When I saw the post by Angela, I knew the time had come to start the search. But there’s no guarantees with this kind of thing. So I was careful not to get my hopes up.

I arrived at PetSmart and added my name to the list of folks there to adopt a puppy. I was 4th on the list. If you read either of my blogs, you may know 4 is my favorite and my lucky number. All the good things that have happened in my life have some connection to a four. I thought being 4th on the list was interesting and took it as a good omen.

About 40-minutes later the puppies arrived. There were 4 white puppies at 8-weeks old. And 7 hound puppies at 5-months old. But those people in front of me had first pick and I wasn’t sure which puppy I would have a chance to take home; if any. I had to wait through 3 other people to pick their favorite puppies. When I got to the front of the line there were 2 female babies left. One with black spots by her left eye and the other with one black year. It sure felt like fate, kismet, destiny, whatever, it was meant to be that these two were waiting for me.

But which one would I be able to take home? The one that reminded me of my Destinie or the one that reminded me of Rascal? Both were female, so that didn’t help make the decision. The young man from the shelter asked me if I knew which of the remaining dogs I wanted. I said “I can’t make up my mind between the white ones.” To which he replied, “Take them both”. You can do that? Apparently so! So I was able to give a forever home to Destinie II and Rascal II.

I’m sorry to those people who were behind me. They had come for a specific puppy too. But the one they wanted hadn’t been brought to the store today. He had gotten sick with a cold, along with the other males from this litter. They were all back at the shelter receiving antibiotics. They could be adopted in 10 days. I told them, maybe there’s something they needed to wait for before they could adopt that little boy. It didn’t help, they were upset with me. I felt bad, but keeping these sisters together was also important to me. And if they were going to allow me to do that, I was doing it.

It didn’t take as long as they thought to fill out the paperwork, pick up the free bag of puppy food for each one of these little girls. Plus the new collars/leashes and a toy of course. The adoption fee paid ($10 each), we were headed out the door for the hour-long ride home. Thankfully two young girls were there to help during the process. They even helped with getting the puppies to go potty before we got in the car. I truly appreciated the help. And luckily on the way home, both puppies were so wore out from the adventure to the store, they slept the entire way home.

At the house, the next big mission…meeting the cats. Those Kitty introductions are..um..still ongoing. When the puppies came through the door, the cats took off and ran upstairs. Well except for Meep, she was ready to take them on. But she scared the babies more than she was scared of the and I told her to get upstairs too. She’s the smallest of the cats and the biggest ‘bad ass’.

With everyone upstairs, the puppies and I could sit in the floor and get to know each other. Play a bit and allow them time to get familiar with their new surroundings. The boy child could also meet the doggies, even though he’s the cat person around here. About 20-minutes later, Mooshu braved the stairs and came to see the puppies. She got pretty close. But the babies wouldn’t walk over my leg to see her. They watched her, but that was it.

We played hard for about an hour, went outside for a baby potty break and had a little water and food. I didn’t want to dump them in the crate and leave them to their own devices, so I took a large shipping box and laid some towels for them to sleep on. Thinking they’d feel better being close, I put the box on my footstool. They’ve been sleeping in my lap for the past hour or so.  Thank goodness it’s not a blistering hot day. Cause they’re getting pretty toasty!

Since they have been napping on my lap, Mooshu has been in her favorite spot here on the arm rest of my big chair. As soon as the puppies move, she’s gone. But she has come back each time. I think she remembers playing with Destinie and Rascal the 1sts. I’m pretty sure she misses Rascal. She loved that dog.

Meep braved coming downstairs, but didn’t stay long. As has Rocket. Amusingly Rascal II started dreaming, running in her sleep and barked. Which caused Rocket to haul butt back up the stairs. I’ve never seen her move so fast. It was terribly funny. But they all have time to get used to each other. It took Rascal about 2 weeks to become friends with our first cat Buzzball. But they became the best of friends. I know all our animal family kids will love and play with each other soon enough.

It’s been hard getting some good pictures of the babies as they don’t sit still when their awake. And sleeping in my lap makes it hard to get a picture of them. We have a lifetime to get more pictures though. You can count on those being shared. I’m so thrilled to have puppies back in my home. My kindred spirits, my best friends, my little babies who share unconditional love and greet me when we come home. It’s a blessed and happy day!

By
2015

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