Today, I'd love to share about my dogs. My journey to dog ownership was an interesting one. I had always wanted a dog but lived in an apartment that did not allow animals. During our relocation transition back in 2010, my hubby moved first and I was to follow about 8 months later. His cousin had these puppies and Shawn (my hubby) would occassionally text pictures to me. Well, I thought nothing of it until he called to say "we" have a puppy! It was Lily at about 6 months old. Needless to say I was NOT thrilled, and thought she looked huge in the pictures. He surprised me again one night by making a trip home with the new pup. She was surprisingly smaller than I'd expected, absolutely precious (though I wouldn't admit it) and very fearful. We found out she was abused by the owner his cousin trusted her to and they were smart enough to take their dog back and find her a better home- with us! When we moved into our new place she had a terrible time with seperation anxiety. She had bent the bars on her cage to the point of swelling her paws, scratched the doorframe bloody and shredded an entire doormat. We knew we had to do something and FAST! It killed me to watch her basically freak out when we left the house and listen to her cry so loudly. I knew I'd never medicate our dog, so we tried a few things- I read books, talked to trainers, consulted the vet and the popular suggestion was get another dog...
In comes Jax in this canine tale. After going to several local pet stores there was something unsettling about buying a dog from a pet store. Aside from the prices (outrageous) there just was something that just didn't feel right and I to this day can't put my finger on it. So, we were told about the local SPCA. We made several trips to check out dogs and I even started to donate items they were in need of and we financially sponsored a few dogs while we were in the search process. Then one day after a failed meeting between Lily and another female dog at the shelter, the worker said maybe we need to look for a smaller, male dog. We walked by the small dog cage and there he was...absolutely adorable and different than the rest. It was a little Rat Terrier. I'd never seen his breed before in person. He was found wandering the streets without tags a few days prior. They took him out of his cage to meet Lily and after quite a few sniffs they seemed to really like each other. So we agreed to adopt him. We decided to name him Jax after Sons of Anarchy. After he was fixed and checked out by the vet he was ours! I felt like a nervous mom when we picked him up on 2/10/11. He's estimated to be 3 years old now and we celebrate his birthday on his adoption day February 10th.
Now they are best of friends, Lily is now almost 2 1/2 years old now (her bday is New Year's Day!) and doing much better, and we are blessed with two little doggies that love us no matter what. Adopting Jax is by far the most important thing I've ever done in life. Who knows what would have happened to this nameless dog and to think that he's healthy, happy and loved by us makes me feel great. I hope this post touches some of you animal lovers out there and brings awareness to the many animals that are waiting for adoption.
There are many options for pet adoption, just be wise and do your research. Here's a start: http://www.aspca.org/adoption
Have a Paws-itively beautiful day!
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