A Found and Rescued Puppy

In case you weren't aware, I am kind of a sucker for animals - especially dogs. So I am sure that you can imagine that when a stray dog with no collar was standing in front of our gate staring at Rally with a happy tail, I had to do something.

A few weeks ago I was home inside doing who knows what when I heard the dogs across the street going insane. Now, these dogs bark all the time (they're gone now) but this time it sounded different so I went to investigate. Standing in front of our gate with her tail happily wagging was a small Pitbull or maybe an American Staffordshire Terrier. Either way, she looked very thirsty and hungry so I got Rally inside the house and I let her inside our yard. I'm always dutifully wary of stray dogs so I made sure to use all the tactics I knew so that she wouldn't get riled up. Silly me, she just wanted some love and attention. I sat down and she quickly showered me with kisses.
I got her some food and water and watched her eat and drink before I decided it was safe to let Rally out. It was a little tense at first because they were both very confused and this was the first time Rally had ever shared his "territory" but it turns out they get along fantastically! Sheepishly I got on GTalk and shared a quick message with Glenn - ummmm... we have a pitbull in our yard. She has no collar." I'm sure he was thrilled to see that message. I supervised the dogs playing for the rest of the day and then Glenn came home.

It was ridiculously cute watching the dogs get all excited when they saw the car pull up. When he got out of the car they were both jumping at the gate, dying to get his attention. Later we discussed what we were going to do with the dog. We decided it would be best to take her over to the Humane Society. ***Quick detour here - I tried volunteering at the Humane Society in Phoenix, I even went through orientation and everything, but when it came time to actually go into the shelter, I just lost it. I quickly ran to the car and spent the next 20 minutes crying my eyes out before driving home and vowing to never go in there again. I just can't handle all the sadness and the cries from all the animals.*** We brought her there and registered her and as Glenn was talking to the intake person, I lost it and ran out to the car and bawled my eyes out. It was really more just from being in that awful place and thinking about the dismal life we were dooming this poor dog to than it was actually giving her away.
We brought her home and decided we would adopt her out ourselves if no one came forward for her. We posted a few found ads on various places on the internet. We had no one come forward but many many people showed interest in adopting her. We made it very clear that she was not going home with anyone before she got fixed, vaccinated, and microchipped. The world does not need another litter of unwanted puppies. We took care of all of those things out of our own pocket and said that we would adopt her out to the right home for free. I figure it is our way of donating to the shelters.

We set up a few meetings as soon as they were convenient. I did not get a good feeling at all for the first girl who showed up. She seemed disinterested in the dog and paid a lot of attention to Rally. As she left she offered little more than saying she "loved" the dog and couldn't wait to adopt her. Yeah, right. I think she pet her maybe once. I was not giving her up to that lady. Plus she was two hours late and only lived like 15 minutes away! Rude. The second meeting was fantastic. A couple came with their friend from 2 hours away! They drove in rush hour just to come see the dog. As soon as they came in the gate she was all over them, giving them lots of kisses and there was plenty of tail wagging to be seen. They even brought treats for her. It was clear from the second they came in that they were the family we wanted to give her up to. They were kind, loving, and couldn't get enough of her. They were even taking pictures.
We took her in for surgery on our anniversary, which actually worked out great because we actually got to get out of the house and do stuff. She did wonderfully and acted like nothing happened when we brought her home. We tried our best to keep her calm and resting, but it was driving Rally crazy. The next day we couldn't keep them apart and it was very difficult to keep them from playing. We decided to take her to her new family that day. We drove all the way up to Shoreline (I even got to make a few purchases at the Salt Store - Yay!) and went to her new home. They were so excited to have her, it just reaffirmed our decision. I had mentally prepared myself for this, after all I really want to foster dogs in the future so I figured it would be good training. However, Glenn did not and he took it pretty hard. It was actually really sweet.

I was really proud of what we did that day and all that we did for the dog. She was really sweet and deserved to have a loving home. Wherever she was before, I am glad that she is far far away from that now.