Were we out of our minds?

When I woke up on March 9, I had no clue what was in store. For over a year, our kids would tease us about surprising us with new dog. "Oh no," we'd say. We had the freedom to go wherever we wanted to, whenever we wanted to, without making arrangements for the care of a dog (not that we often went anywhere, but now we had the freedom to do so). No early morning or after dark in the rain or snow dog walking,  no more waiting and waiting for the a dog to do his business. No more expensive dog food. No more beauty parlor appointments to have the dog groomed, no more furniture destruction. NONE OF THAT! In fact, the closest we'd come to considering one was when we saw the cutest little rescue dog on a local Sunday morning news show segment called "Furry Friend" that featured a couple of pets each week. We'd get pulled in - then look at each other - and just say "No way".

It was late morning when my wife and I went to do our typical Saturday errands - food shopping, cleaners, etc.

The supermarket we went to shared a parking lot with Petco.  I had no interest in food shopping. So I dropped my wife off and drove to another center a few blocks away to the dry cleaners. As it so happened, there was an Animal Rescue van in the parking lot. When I returned, I got bored listening to how bad the Mets were going to be this year, so I found my way over to the van...just to see....pass a little time.....that's all.

As I timidly approached, one of the volunteers was exiting the van with a Beagle mix on his leash. The dog was very sweet but beagles have a reputation of being barkers. That's not for us. Ollie was a barker. We like quiet.  But I was invited in to see the other rescue dogs and cats that were in the van.

In the first cage, I came across a Terrier Mix. He was a little over a year old and as cute as a button. He was so friendly. I was asked if I wanted to take him out of his cage. Reluctantly, I said yes.  I held him for a while then was asked if I wanted to take him out of the van for a walk. Ok. So we left the van.

We took a stroll in the parking lot and I was sure I was going to show him off to my wife.  Trying to be cool, but excited inside, I brought Elroy back to the van and told the volunteer I'd be back.

I found my wife in the back of the supermarket. She was surprised that I would even consider the idea of another pet. I told her there were actually 3 or 4 dogs that we might consider. So, after leaving the supermarket we went to the van to take a peek. Elroy was in the 1st cage so I pointed him out right away. She noticed how cute and friendly he was. She also noticed he was a little perkier than we wanted. We tried perky - it didn't work for us.

In the next cage, there was a similar dog, estimated to be about 1 year old, a rescue from Alabama. He was a reddish tan terrier mix with a little white whisk at the top of his head. He had an underbite. They called him Bo.

He didn't make a sound.
He hardly moved.  We took him out of his cage. He was very sweet.

We made the mistake of having hyper dogs. Bo seemed nearly lifeless. Yes. This seemed perfect. But were we really ready to try this again? The ARF people suggested we take an hour to make our decision.

We went home and asked our son what we should do. He has very good instincts and he would surely let us know if were out of our minds.

Whatshisname, our new attempt to be successful dog owners

First, he didn't believe that we'd consider another dog. Then, he was very excited that we might. We all went back to the van to take another look and decide.

We were not completely sure what to do. So how did we decide?

1. Obviously, we seemed to think if we found the right dog, we wanted to have one.
2. Is the third time the charm?
3. We choose lively dogs in the past, this one seemed timid.
4. This dog ate regular supermarket dog food.
5. He wasn't a puppy.
6. Not likely to shed much.
7. This is a charitable act and we felt good about adopting.

So we collectively took deep breaths and agreed to adopt the dog formerly known as Bo. But Bo sounded too much like No and if we decided to do this again, we were going to have a trained dog somehow.  It turned out that Bo was just the name the Animal Rescue gave him. They didn't really know his name, so we could name him whatever we liked.

We drove home. He didn't throw up. I guess he wasn't nervous.

Next - "Surprise". Stay tuned....