A Quick Adoption into a Fur-Ever Home

On a pretty regular basis, say weekly, sometimes every other day, I’ve been checking the local humane society website, looking for a dog.  This, despite the fact that I had I swore to myself, my husband, and my kids that we were not going to have another living thing in our house that I had to take care of until someone moves out.  But, I had a dog as a kid, a little mutt my mother brought home from a church picnic or somewhere; she was a great pet and it was the enjoyment of having a dog that I wanted to give to my kids.

So I would check for updates at the human society, and lately, I expanded my search to other shelters and rescue organizations, nearby and a few states away.  Then the kids and I would “oohh” and “he’s so cute” at all the dogs in the shelter and in foster care.  I checked with breeders, too, for purebreds or hypoallergenic hybrids.  But, I will admit, the costs were a bit more than I anticipated paying, and I couldn’t ignore those cute mutts at the shelters and I hated to think of what would happen is no-one took them home.

Check your local dog rescue organizations and pet-supply stores for Pet Adoption events.  This one was at PetSmart.

Saturday night, I found Lucky Dog Animal Rescue of Washington DC online.  And I saw that on Sunday they were having an adoption event at a PetSmart not 30 minutes from me.  The kids and I made our “wish list”, just like at Christmas.

I wasn’t really expecting to get a dog.  There was the application and an interview and a home visit.  And oh, yeah, Bri is a little bit allergic to some dogs so there was a good chance she’d go into a sneezing fit as soon as we stepped up to the store.  We were just going to look and turn in our application.

Mostly puppies and young dogs, maybe a few older dogs, were there, wagging their tails and on their best behavior, waiting for someone to claim them as their own.  They were all adorably cute.  The kids circled around Betina, a black Shepherd/Lab/Mix (maybe Chow?) puppy.  She was the runt of a litter of 9 that had been left at a shelter in South Carolina at 6 weeks old.

The kids picked their favorite out of the whole bunch.  She was also probably the smallest of all the dogs there.

We turned in our paperwork, had our interview on the spot, and were ready to go buy her a leash.  Then – oops – another family actually was ahead of us on the list for that puppy.  I didn’t realize how excited I was to get her until they told me we weren’t.  As we walked around, considering some of the remaining dogs, one of the volunteers ran over and said the other family said they didn’t want our kids to be upset about losing the puppy (they had just gone through the same experience, coincidentally for the sister-puppy) and we could have her, they would wait for her brothers who were coming next week.  Really?  Okay, so I will admit, I can be a bit sensitive and this really gracious act might’ve made me shed a tear or two.  Who expected such an emotional roller coaster in getting a dog?

Before anything else happened – we quickly said yes, we’ll do the home visit today, checked to make sure Bri still wasn't sneezing, then ran inside the store with Laura, the puppy’s foster caregiver, and Seetha, the volunteer who had been keeping her all day, and grabbed a bag of food, a collar, a leash, and a crate – all the stuff a dog needs for her new home. 

Our new furry friend - rescued from a shelter in South Carolina

Thanks to everyone who made sure that Betina came home with us today – Laura for adjusting her schedule and route home; Brittany, with Lucky Dog Animal Rescue, for getting all the paperwork done and making the arrangements; and the family that let us have her - I hope you get your puppy real soon.

Thanks for helping us find all the supplies to take our new puppy home

More on how Raven's fitting in, in this post on my Lazy Lab-Shepherd.