“We should get a dog.”
I don’t remember who said it first, but adopting a dog kept coming up in our conversations. We both enjoyed having a dog in the past, but we weren’t really sure if we wanted the responsibility of a pet. We appreciated the companionship, but then we’d have to deal with dog poop in the backyard. With the end of chemo in sight, we could be traveling more often, but caring for a pet would limit our spontaneous trips. What should we do?
After recognizing that we were both leaning towards “Yes,” we settled on going to a few local shelters ‘just in case’ someone was waiting for us. Several shelters later, we’d met some beautiful dogs eager to find a loving family, but we still hadn’t found “our” dog. SK came home a little early one afternoon, so we visited some of the animal shelters in Fort Worth. A visit to the Humane Society revealed they only had puppies and large dogs, so our next stop was the huge city-run animal shelter in southeast Fort Worth.
An attendant called our name and we made our way down the sterile hallway. The hospital-like feel reminded me that this was a kill shelter, and our echoing footsteps made the place seem even sadder. I could hear the barking in the distance and it threatened to overwhelm us by the time we made it to the door.
“Here we go.”
The puppies with their pink noses pressed through the bars of the wire cages nearly broke my heart. We didn’t get past the third cage on the first aisle. This adorable black and white dog was sitting there calmly looking up at us. Even with all the other dogs barking, he just sat there wagging his tail as if to say, “It’s about time ya’ll got here.” We had to meet him!
He seemed to have a great personality, and he appeared healthy. We played with him for awhile, and then excused ourselves from the handler and went to talk. I really wanted to take him home, but I wasn’t sure how SK felt about him. She looked at me and said, “I think he needs to go home with us.” Yay! We filled out the paperwork, paid the fee, and Toby joined our family. Toby’s only been with us for two weeks, but it is hard to imagine our house without him.
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If you are looking to adopt a pet, please consider your local animal shelter. A lifetime of love awaits you!
