A week and a half ago Dave was working at a benefit fish fry. I took the kids down to get some food and then we stopped at A.C. Moore to get ribbon on the way home. I rarely shop at that location. There was an adopt-a-thon next door at the pet shop and I told the kids if they were really good in the store we could go look at the animals.
I am not an animal person, and definitely not a dog person. The past six months, though, I've been entertaining the idea of a dog. Maybe it was the dogs where Jim lives, or Travis and Katie's dog, Charlie, or all my friends on Facebook that keep posting the pictures of the dogs that need to be adopted, I don't know. It could be that we're done having kids and my baby is two and I need another "one" of something. Gus and I have long conversations regularly about what we would name our dog IF we had one and what we would do with our dog. I wanted a basset hound named Claude, Gus wanted to name his dog Chuck. Dave is far more of an animal person. We always thought we would NEVER have a dog. So, when we looked at houses, we looked at houses that had dogs next door.
Back to the shopping with the kids. They were good, so we went to look at the dogs. There was this one dog, Skip. A terrier/hound mix that was amazing. He was 55lbs and calm as could be. He was in the bottom crate, with puppies and other dogs stacked on top. He was so calm. We got him out of the pen and he was great with Lucy and Gus and not at all flustered by Judson's apprehension. He just ignored Judson, which I loved. This dog TUGGED at my heart. Which is odd. The last time I felt this attached to an animal was my pig, Miss Piggy. Anyway, the kids were in love with this dog, too.
So poor Dave comes home from this benefit and I'm all, "We've met someone. He has four legs and I'm in love." He sighed and was like, "What? A dog? I thought we were never going to have a dog?" I showed him pictures. We talked about how things in our life have changed and all the reasons to not have a dog aren't really there now. There are some reasons still, like boarding the dog, and vet expenses. But some major hurdles are gone. Our youngest is two, we're not having another baby, we have hardwoods everywhere, and we have a fenced in yard. Dave agreed to meet the dog! We filled out an application with references and all and submitted it Sunday afternoon. We were hoping for a home visit to make sure the dog was the right fit for our family, if we were to get him.
On Monday afternoon we found out that there was another applicant that wanted Skip. On Monday night the foster dog mom called to interview me. She thought we were a good family and it would be a good fit. She took all week to make the decision. We didn't think we were going to get Skip, and if we did have that opportunity, we probably would not have taken him, because he wasn't a family decision. Dave got out of work early on Friday because of the holiday weekend. We pulled Lucy out 45 minutes early and decided to stop at an animal rescue place on the way to Dave's parents house. Right before we left, the lady called and said that she decided to give Skip to the other applicant because he applied first. It made things a little more clear for us.
We drove out in the pouring rain to this shelter in the middle of nowhere. I love that it was raining, it's all symbolic, change was about to happen. Anyway, we got there 15 minutes before they closed. The guy was fantastic. He took us to where all the dogs were kept. We went because of two dogs, Oliver and Duncan. We saw their pictures online and they were super cute. Anyway, we get there and meet them, and they are WILD. They both keep getting placed and then return because they are way too hyper. We go down the line and look at all the other dogs. In my mind I wanted a boy dog. Boy names are fun. Dave kept coming back to this dog named Samantha. She was so incredibly sweet. She put her hands up on the door, but didn't bark. I started talking to her and she put her hand out to shake. It was so sweet. We decided to take her out of the pen. Because it was raining, we got to go to the big training room with her. The guy put the harness on her and handed me the leash. I was frieking out a bit on the inside. The day before I started reading all this stuff about dogs and how to take care of them. The Dog Whisperer said that the first walk is so important and it sets the pace for the whole relationship. No pressure, right? So I have her leash and in my mind I'm thinking, "If she's the one, this matters, I have to go through doors first, keep her to my side or behind me." I kept saying that to myself over and over again. We got to the training room and she was amazing. AMAZING. She did not bark once. She followed Lucy around. She nuzzled up to our legs, almost like a cat. She knew sit and shake. Judson was apprehensive, he would cry if she got too close, so she stayed away. We ended up playing with her for 30 minutes. On the walk back, we decided to get her. When Dave put her back in the pen, she was not happy. She just stopped. She didn't bark, she just stopped moving. We filled out all the paperwork and arranged to get her on Tuesday.
We spent the rest of the drive trying to figure out what to name her, Samantha wasn't our name for her. We liked Mabel (Mutts Always Bring Extra Love), Vera, Posey, and Ginger. It's like Ginger from Gilligan's Island and the Far Side Cartoon. All weekend we talked about what to name her. Ginger alone sounded too feisty, but adding the May, because we got her in May, toned it down a bit. Ginger May sounds southern and laid back to us. I called Sunday afternoon to see if there was any chance we could get her Monday afternoon. The man we spoke to on Friday said he would be there from 3 to 6 and we could pick her up then, a whole day early! Then I called the pet store to see if they could give her a bath and do her nails and brush her teeth. Sure enough they had a 4:30 appointment available.
We picked her up at 3:15 yesterday afternoon. She had just been walked and was ready to go. I sat in the back with Ginger and Gus for the 45 minute drive to Durham. She sat down and did great. She didn't bark, she was quiet, and calm. At one point she started shaking. She was scared and nervous. We dropped her off for her appointment (it tooke 2 hours) and came home to get everything unpacked from the weekend and set up for her. She did great for her appointment and the ride home. She explored the house. She went outside to use the bathroom. We put the kids to bed and I took her for a walk. She slept on the dog bed on the floor next to my side of the bed. She didn't wake up in the middle of the night. The kids and I took her for a walk this morning and she did great. The first time we all heard her bark was when we left her at home to take Lucy to school. She was so sad and watched us leave from the front window. She is the most perfect dog, ever! I think she's part human, really. She is so sweet. She's taken to the name Ginger, she responds to it almost instantly. She doesn't chew on things and hasn't had an accident in the house yet. We're all in love, even our little Judsy. He can't stop looking at her. He fed her a treat this afternoon. We had no idea that we would end up with a dog, let alone one this incredibly perfect.
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