The Dog Blog

This is the long and somewhat sordid tale of our search for a dog.

It all started with our friends' dog, Otis. Otis is part Pug, part Boston Terrier. He is basically an awesome dog who really pushed Aaron and I over the edge as far as wanting one soon. Aaron wanted a dog exactly like Otis, and me, I would have settled for a pug. We agreed, in November, to talk about getting a dog in February.

Then there was the IGE weekend in Big Bear. En route, we discovered that a friend of a friend was going to be giving away some pug puppies. Yes, giving away. So we got our name on that list quickly, and waited a couple weeks to hear how many puppies there were and when we could get ours. We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little puppy.

Then came the sad news of how our Mama Pug gave birth to 8 little puppies, only to have 2 of them survive. Those two had already been spoken for, leaving us feeling a bit disappointed. We really discovered just how badly we wanted a dog.

So we decided to go looking at shelters. You hear all the time that shelters are a great place to find a great dog, right? You're a hero, you're saving a poor little dog from a terrible fate, it's less expensive than buying a purebred puppy, it's humane, yada yada yada. Well, maybe if you have the option of having any size dog. But when you are limited to a 30 pound weight restriction and a small apartment, really, it's a fight to get a dog in that range. Want a puppy? Forget it! On our first visit to the Rancho Cucamonga animal shelter we found this guy the shelter was calling Nutter. This picture doesn't really do him justice, but here he is. He was a sweet dachsund-beagle mix (yes, I wanted to call him the Oscar Meyer Snoopy Dog), who warmed up to us immediately in the meet & greet room.

Our happy little bubble got burst when someone from the shelter came in the room and said he had just been approved for adoption to another family, so they took him out and we were quite sad. We went looking at several other shelters, but no one compared to this guy and his little perma-puppy face (he was full-grown but still had the look of a puppy).  We were out of town for the weekend so we gave it a rest with the shelters, but went back today and got to meet someone who we are hoping to bring home very soon. We tried to adopt her today only to find out she's not available until tomorrow (doh!) because of the holiday. So we'll be there when the shelter opens at 1pm to secure her for sure. Her name is going to be Scout, and she is the sweetest mangy mutt you'll ever meet. Aaron was convinced he wanted a male dog, someone to be his buddy, but when she ran into the room and went straight to him, she had him. :) I'm very excited, but trying to keep my head on straight in case we have yet another shelter mishap. I think the worst that could happen is that her owner could claim her today, but I am doubtful of that happening.

So here is her picture from the website, not very flattering, and a couple I snapped while we were in the meet & greet room with her.