Yesterday was one of those rare days when everything just works out!
Paul and Thomas's school is out for a long weekend winter break, Stephen had a day off, the stomach bug that has been lingering around our house stayed away, it was my birthday, and we got to spend the day enjoying being together. We had hoped that the day would work out that way, but you just never know! We wanted to do something, but had had a hard time deciding what. Thursday night, something mysterious happened to me as I was preparing to turn 45, because it hit me that the perfect way to spend the day would be by going to the local animal shelters and finding a new family dog. It's been 10 months since Buddy died and I've not been very anxious to replace him. But, for some reason, this past week I'd found myself thinking about it some, and all of a sudden I was ready.
We spent Thursday night and Friday morning checking out all the shelters listings online. We had a pretty narrow list of requirements so we didn't have high hopes of finding something too quickly. At noon we loaded up the whole family to go out for Mom's birthday lunch and then to the shelters to see in person the dogs we'd found online. We warned the kids that we were just "window shopping". This statement led to Daniel telling one of his brothers that we had to go buy some windows. :)
Don't get me wrong on this next part, because I do appreciate what the humane society and animal shelters do, but the adoption process was unbelievable! The evaluation was far more about us proving we were "fit" for the dog than about the dog being right for us. But, we jumped through the hoops until we were able to have the dog of choice come out of his kennel and "get acquainted".
Jack, a 2 year old beagle, was an instant hit! We did go to another shelter to go through all the necessary screenings to check out another dog just to be sure, but there was no doubt, Jack was the winner.
We have a 4 day waiting period so Jack can think this thing through and prepare himself for his adoption, but it looks like he'll arrive home on Tuesday. We'll keep you posted on his adjustment!
