A New Chapter

We've gone back and forth for months wondering if we should get another dog. At first we decided we were absolutely not getting another dog. We'd just cherish Spencer and let him ride out in style.

Then Spencer's personality dramatically changed. I was reading a Cesar Millan book and something clicked with me. The concept of dogs needing to know their place in your "pack". The fact that dogs don't feel bad when they are not alpha. In essence, they need to "know their role" and we had not been teaching that to our dogs. We took control of Spencer by doing a few small things. Not letting him pull on the leash and just being an all around leader to him in our home. He absolutely thrived and completely changed into a calm, even tempered 12.5 year old dalmatian.

Inevitably we then started talking about getting another dog. I know I've lectured many people that having 1 dog is ideal and 2 dogs is a bad idea. I will say that if you get a second dog simply because you don't really want to deal with your first dog and you hope another one will take that burden off you - this is a very bad idea. But, if you feel as though you have room in your heart, family and lifestyle - a second dog can be a good thing.

So we started our on again off again search for a new dog. We looked at pit bull rescue, dobermans, austrailian shepards, cattle dogs, dalmatians, french bulldogs, boston terriers to name a few.

I filled out applications to adopt a foster dogs. No one ever responded back to us.  I called a couple of people who had listings on Craigslist, no call back. It seemed as though we just were going to have to be patient. I kept thinking that at some point, the right dog will come into our life.

 And then we did the most logical thing that you can do. We went to our local animal shelter. It is amazing how many dogs they have that need home. Why not give a dog a chance that might otherwise be euthanized? (These were Brian's wise words to me)

We went to see a 7 month old female cattle dog/austrailian shepard mix. Everyone described her as being "sweet." Before we went, we called the shelter to make sure she was there. To our disappointment, someone had just put her on a 3-day hold. We were sad, but felt happy for the dog that she'd found a home.

Then I got a text from my friend Larisa who told me the dog we were looking at was still available. So we went to check her out. She was little, shy and seemed sweet. She followed me around the visitation room sort of just looking at me wondering, "what is next?"

We decided to bring Spencer back the next day to meet her. They met and it didn't go horribly so we thought, what the heck?  Of course she had to be spayed first and that wouldn't happen until 2 days later.

The next 2 days, I was nervous and probably very annoying around the house. I kept asking Brian, "what if she is too shy? what if she is a problem? what if it doesn't work out?" I'd never had a shelter dog and thought that it might not be a good idea to get a dog we knew little to nothing about. All we knew is that she had been hit by a car and consequently lost one of the toes on her front paw and that the previous owners did a night drop with the reasoning, "needs a new home" on the paperwork. Nice.

But I picked her up and away we went! She was groggy but so incredibly calm and sweet.

I wasted no time making sure she was comfortable on our bed.

Saturday morning was very exciting. She slept through the night and didn't make a peep. She slept in til 7am. We got up, went for a short walk and went about our day. She really just fit into our lifestyle. She followed us wherever we went and seemed genuinely interested in everything we did. We kept asking ourselves, "why would anyone want to get rid of this dog?"

Sunday was even better. She began gaining a bit more confidence on the walk. She is very timid around other dogs. We will have to begin socializing her as soon as her stitches heal. I taught her to sit and we are currently working on down. She really is the sweetest dog I've ever met.

One problem though - we don't have a name for her. On her paperwork, they named her Dixie. She answers to it, but I don't really like it. We have tried a lot of different names on her:

Lizzy
Trixie
Murphy
Laddy
Tidbit
Crummy
Fitsin (this one was a suggesting from Jane. It is because she just fits in!)
Fitsie
fixie

Oh, and the first name we thought of - Doggie. Totally original I know.

Anyhoo, we don't have a name yet. I'm leaning towards Crummy. I really liked Trixie but Brian things it sounds like a prostitute. We will figure it out. Soon I hope. Until then, she will continue to be a great new chapter in our lives!