Doggone Crazy

Took Sable to the vet yesterday for her regular checkup. It was nice to go for something normal as opposed to our recent run of life-or-death visits. The office was unusually quiet, so much so that Dr. Donna took us in back to show us that the techs were painting the toenails on all the doctors' dogs. Too funny - we never got to do that when I worked there!

While she was checking Sable out she asked us if we were going to get another dog. Yes, definitely, we're just waiting until money is less of an issue. And we have our heart set on another Shepherd.

Of course, she comes right back with "any chance you'd be interested in a goofy lab?"

My husband gives me The Look. Lots of relationships have a Look - ours means "no, you cannot have that animal." Of course, being the loving and obedient wife that I am, I responded with my best "oh yeah? just watch me" Look and then asked the doctor "can we meet him?"

His name is Scout. He's a 5 year old yellow lab. He's a bit pudgy, but quite small for the breed. To-die-for cute. His family has a child, and it appears once it came along the dog was relegated to a kennel most of the time. He got almost no exercise and it appears no obedience training. He likes to eat socks, for which he has had two emergency surgeries to remove life-threatening blockages. The family paid for the first one, and when the second one rolled around they couldn't deal and turned him over to the vet (which runs a charity for this kind of thing). The doctor suspects his sock eating is a manifestation of him being bored out of his mind. He's temporarily living in the kennels at the back of the vet's office until a new family is located.

My Doggish is a little rusty, but this was the gist of our conversation with Scout.

OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod it's people and they're here to see meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Ooooh they're petting meeeee and they're talking to meeeeee and ohboyohboyohboyohboy ifIspininacircleasfastasIcantheycanscratchmyearsandmybuttatthesametime ooooooooooooh looky! It's a cat! WAIT! There's still PEOPLLLLLLLE here to see me!!!! Hang on - gotta pee. OKI'mbackpetmepetmepetmepetme.

And so it went. He's a doll. And OMG, the look on his face when it was time to go. Big brown pleading eyes begging noooooooooooopleeeeeeeeeeeeasedon'tyoulovemeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee as he slowly and reluctantly but very obediently went back into his kennel.

Dr. Donna and I both think the same thing: he wants to be a good boy, but nobody's ever shown him how. There's a real concern that nobody will adopt him in this state; his best bet is a serious dog person willing to take on a project... come to think of it, that's probably why Donna approached us.

My husband clearly didn't click with the dog, so I already knew adopting him was moot. But I've been kicking around fostering until I'm ready to adopt another Shepherd, so after Scott went to retrieve Sable from the techs I was about to ask Donna if we could help out that way and she suggested it herself. (Did I mention that we're experienced rescue dog foster parents?) I told her I'd float the idea and get back to her.

Out in the waiting room, as we were collecting our stuff to leave an unbelievable coincidence came in (Donna swears it was not a set-up) that made me sure I couldn't adopt Scout. It was a freshly rescued, sweet-as-can-be adult female German Shepherd. Sable went nuts - she desperately wanted to play with her. That was my first confirmation that she misses her playmate, and I thought it was interesting she responded so strongly, and so positively, to a Shepherd. She's usually shy around new dogs. Me, well, I cried on the way home because it made me miss Karma.

So. Can you see where this is going?

We can't afford to adopt yet, but we can afford to give time and discipline and love to a sweet dog that desperately needs to be taught how to behave in a family. So, assuming it goes well when we introduce him to my dog, I'm going to be a foster mommy again.