Puppy Love Part II

Friday evening, after fretting and working up courage all day, I called the lady about the puppy. Well, I should say that I tried to call her and the number was bad because my husband cannot read his own writing. I tried every combination of numbers I thought it could be and none of them were good. As my anxiety was through the roof, I took to Google and found a number that I thought was right. I took a deep breath and called, and it was her. The sweetest woman you could ever imagine. She gave me some info about Haley, and when I asked if I could meet her, she said that I could, but that they were going away for the weekend, so she would call me during the week. We hung up, and I was a bit disheartened, but we went about our weekend business and I put it out of my mind.

On Sunday when I got out of the shower, I had a missed call from the dog lady. She wondered if we’d like to come out that afternoon. After some schedule arranging, and a quick call back, we were on our way. I didn’t really know what to expect; I felt weird descending on this house with my whole family, but these people were so nice and so gracious. Just the husband greeted us at the door, and Haley ran out, and was just a ball of puppy exuberance. She scared the pants off of Lucy, who waited in the car for a while. As we talked, Haley chased Liv around, and she and Bud played fetch and we just got to know her a bit. Lucy came in later to wave the laser pointer around and squeal in delight as the puppy pounced on the tiny red dot. She was bigger than I thought she’d be for 9 months old, but still sort of puppy sized. She has the sweetest puppy face you’ve ever seen. (And of course I left my phone in the car and didn’t take any more photos)

When the wife came downstairs to talk to us, it was obvious that she’d been crying. She really loves the puppy, like to the point that we feel a little bit bad taking her, but they are insistent that they want us to have her here, in a family with children who will play with her, in a nice fenced in yard, where she won’t be alone all day long every day. As much as they love her, they know they are not the right fit for her. As it stands, she is a bit wild, and still has some accidents in the house. She needs proper training and they do not have time. So even though I feel like I am stealing this woman’s beloved pet from her, we are all in agreement that the dog is now ours. It’s the perfect situation, really—save for the emotions involved. She’s caught up on her shots, spayed, used to cats and is micro chipped. They don’t want anything from us, except to love and take care of Haley.

Really, I think she would have preferred for us to take Haley home with us right then and there; to rip off the band aid if you will, but we decided to wait, since Hub and I are both off of work next week, and pick her up this coming weekend. I have to call her to set up a time, but Sunday will likely be the day.

So this is the story of how our family adopted a dog together. I can still barely believe we’re doing it. It’s only been 5 years since we lost Sheeba, but it seems like an eternity that it’s been just us and the cats. I have visions of family walks in the park, and around the block with the dog in tow. Sitting around the fire in the yard with a dog at our feet in the summer, and snuggling up with her in the winter. Who knew I could ever fall in love with a dog? Certainly not me.