Confused yet?
Does it help if I let you know we just (finally!!!) adopted a dog? And oh, was it a struggle.
We found the county adoption website, which doubles as where strays are turned in. After getting mildly excited about three different options, all small varieties, we signed up for a mandatory appointment and drove in to south Phoenix. Dog 1? 2? 3? All not adoptable, still needing training, already gone, and other reasons. But we could look around.
What they had was a small-dog building full of ... other peoples' dogs. Either they were already adopted and waiting for, say, neutering, or they were strays waiting for their previous owners to have a chance to claim them. We returned to the front desk to inquire of the staff how could we actually find an adoptable dog. He gave us a 10 minute lesson on policies, and codes in the animal description page which gave us clues as to any dog's real status. Plus, you know, first come first served, etc. No reserving a dog until you could actually drive the 40 minutes to get there.
Discouraged, once home I started searching for dogs for sale in our size range. The prices didn't even stop at $3 grand! Yikes! Now we're even more discouraged!
We agreed to make a couple first-time-slot-in-the-day reservations, one Thursday, one Saturday. Meanwhile we'd pour over the county dogs with more enlightened eyes.
This morning 8 more small dogs appeared on the site. Two were actually shih tzus, so I hit the phone. Nope, already had owners pending even as they came on the site. Somehow it seemed that previous clients of the shelter could actually put in request reservations for certain dogs. Like shih tzus, of course. Just before lunchtime, a wheat terrier came up on the site. Cute little dickens, a bit shy but friendly. Jotting down a couple more ID numbers for dogs that were "possibles", I made a reservation for driving time plus 10, and hopped in the car. Steve declined to come along this time. Yesterday's walking had done him in. I asked did he trust me to choose, and he said yes, adding which of the three was his least favorite.
No problem there, as.despite what we could glean off the website, it wasn't to be fit for adoption for another week or more. You also have to know, considering how this had been going, that the wheat terrier pranced out of the doors on his leash with his happy new owners just as I pulled in to park. The third choice was Heather.
I arranged a meet-and-greet, and while initially shy, she wound up in my lap. Plus she was a quarter of the price we were quoted for small dogs yesterday. BONUS!
She is approximately 11 pounds of hug-seeking chihuahua, 8 years old, and brought in as a stray. Although already microchipped, her previous owner didn't claim her back. She's nearly all black, white single hairs on legs and white toes on three feet, with a muzzle also starting to whiten. She's had some training, and we'll be finding out how much as we go. She'll come to me, can even jump up into my chair over its arm with an invitation, and nudge for a scratch or a pet. (I even got a kiss!) While she sat on Steve's lap after we put her up there, and she got all kinds of loving from him, she's leery about jumping way up into the noisy chair. Rich is currently introducing her to his mess in the lanai, and we're all still waiting till she decides to avail herself of the backyard potty. Maybe not enough dog scent is left out there.
She's way better at finding crumbs on the floor than we are. Another bonus, especially after this morning when my bare feet found a bunch of very crunchy ones along my path to my chair: ouch hop ouch hop ouch hop hop.
As for the name, our initial thought was to change it. Various terms circulated. Then again, for now we just may keep it. After all, Rich calls me "Mom" and Steve mostly uses endearments, so not too confusing yet. We'll see though.
Steve has canceled Thursday's and Saturday's appointments to go back there. We've got our new family.
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