Wow! It has been an emotional week. We got some bad family news, my husband's grandmother passed away, and we got a new dog. When I began to write it all down as a comment for Chappy's Birthday (http://chappysmom.com), I realized that it would be good to put on my own (much neglected) blog so I will always remember those two bittersweet, emotional days when we got Bella and lost Grandma. So here it is, along with some pictures of her first day with us. (Skip to the end for pictures)
My husband and I got a Cocker Spaniel puppy about 2 years ago for my birthday. Shortly after that we began talking about getting a second dog. A few weeks ago we decided that now was the time. Since I picked out our first dog, I told my husband he could pick out the second and he decided he wanted a Labrador Retriever. At first we were going to purchase a puppy, but then we decided to look around at the local shelters to see if we could rescue a Lab.
We looked on Petfinder.com for about a week, then picked out a beautiful 1 year old female chocolate lab at a shelter about 1 hour away. After calling the shelter to get some additional information about her, we decided that I would go the next day to pick her up. I ran some errands in the morning, then called the shelter as I was leaving to make sure she was still there. They assured me that she was still available and I left immediately. When I got there they told me they had some bad news about the dog I had called about. Apparently when I called, they had checked a book at the front desk to make sure that her paperwork was still there. When I called to say I was on my way, they had gone back to get her ready and no one could find her. They told me they were guessing that one of the caretakers had not locked up properly and she had escaped. I was hearbroken. Not only did my husband and I not have a wonderful new dog, but this poor girl was out lost somewhere. On my way home I called about another dog at a local shelter. Unfortunately, I did not have her kennel number, so I gave the man on the phone the description from Petfinder and he looked through the books. He told me he could not find a dog matching her description and he guessed that she was “already gone.”
When I was almost home my husband called me to tell me to hurry home, because his grandmother (whose cancer had recently returned) had taken a turn for the worse and they were calling all the family to get over to her house. We ended up heading right over there and spending the rest of the evening with her. She passed away early the next morning.
Because we had spent the previous afternoon and evening with my husband’s grandmother, we had not been able to follow up on some other dogs we had found on Petfinder.com. At first, I thought about waiting to pursue getting another dog until we had gotten through the visitations, funeral, and initial grieving, but I decided to call and check on a few of the other dogs anyway. My husband was sad about the loss of his grandmother and I know I have always found the warm snuggles of a dog to be comforting. I found a few more dogs from the shelter in our town that looked promising and got the kennel number from the dog I had called about the previous day (just in case). Strangely, I woke up early that day (my day off) and I decided to call the shelter shortly after they opened.
I was so happy when the person I spoke with told me that the dog I had called about the previous day was still there. Then, she told me that the shelter was completely full and they had just gotten four additional dogs in. If I was interested in a dog, I needed to get there soon, because they were making the decisions about which dogs to euthanize. My heart began to race - I was supposed to call the further away shelter later that day to see if the original dog we were interested in had returned to the shelter, but how could I let another dog be euthanized while waiting for a dog that might show up? I asked the woman if I had until later that day, and she responded that by then the status of the dog I was interested in “may have changed.” I asked her how long I had and she replied “How soon can you be here?” I immediately made the decision to get this dog.
Within an hour I arrived at the local shelter ready to meet my new dog. She was out in the exercise yard and she immediately came when the shelter volunteer called her. She ran up to me, but stood calmly next to me instead of running into me and almost knocking me over as a few other dogs did. She was quite skinny and her fur was a bit scruffy, but she looked alert and friendly. As I filled out the adoption paperwork, one of the shelter employees walked up to me, placed her hand on my back, and said, “You realize you just saved her life.” She had been at the top of the list to be euthanized that day as she had been there the longest.
We have now had Bella almost one week. She is a wonderful, loving dog and gets along great with our other dog, Dusty, and all the human and canine visitors we have had so far. She is working hard on gaining some weight back and remembering to potty outside and not in the house. Otherwise, she spends her time playing fetch, snuggling often with my husband and I, and giving lots of doggy kisses. We are amazed at the joy she has brought into our lives and so happy that we acted when we did and saved this wonderful dog from being euthanized.
