The Tale Of A Dog

In the fall of 2008 I was asked to mon­i­tor the com­put­ers at the Porter County Ani­mal Shel­ter for a few weeks. One Wednes­day morn­ing this absolutely beau­ti­ful yel­low lab was turned into the ani­mal shel­ter and it was love at first sight. I called my wife and told her she bet­ter start pray­ing because I was very tempted to bring home this adorable pup. The staff teased me and even placed a hold sign on her ken­nel, know­ing for sure I would take her home. I knew my wife would not share my, nor their, excitement.

That after­noon a lady vis­ited the ani­mal shel­ter with her son and after look­ing around found “my dog”. She inquired and the staff asked if I could part with “my dog”. I knew the child needed a dog much more than I so, slightly reluc­tantly, I agreed. The lady told the staff that she would be back within the hour with the money … she never showed.

Thurs­day after­noon a lady came in to the ani­mal shel­ter, and like­wise looked around and fell in love with “my dog”. She explained how she recently had to euth­a­nize her dog and she and her hus­band were look­ing for a new dog. Again the staff asked me if I could part with the dog that had already stolen my heart, but how could I com­pete with a woman who had to put her dog to sleep? She paid the adop­tion fee and left with what was sup­posed to be my canine com­pan­ion for years to come. I will admit that a tear or two may have been shed.

Fri­day morn­ing I was at the ani­mal shel­ter when the first vis­i­tor of the day came in. It was the lady with “my dog”. She explained that she and her hus­band agreed it was too early after the loss of their last pet to start over, so she was return­ing the pup. She looked at me and said that since I was kind enough to let her take the dog, she wasn’t ask­ing for the money back and that I could have the dog for free! I imme­di­ately called my wife and told her our fam­ily had grown. If only she would have shared my joy!

My wife joined me at the end of the day when it was time to take (now known as “Bella”) home. She talked with the staff and she was doing ok until she was informed Bella could become 65 pounds of pure joy. She freaked. For­tu­nately, she calmed down and Bella joined our fam­ily. That was Fri­day and we sched­uled her check up with the vet­eri­nar­ian the fol­low­ing Mon­day. Again, things were going well and she told the vet she could not believe Bella would get to 65 pounds. The vet laughed and said, “a dog like Bella, she will prob­a­bly be more like 85 pounds”. She freaked.

Bella is now an estab­lished part of the fam­ily. Sure, my wife still com­plains about her run­ning through the house, bring­ing mud in from out­doors, eat­ing every­thing that she can from clothes to garbage to our cats, and being … well, a puppy; but, when it is quiet and my wife thinks I’m not watch­ing, you will find Bella, in my wife’s lap, enjoy­ing a bag of ani­mal crack­ers and watch­ing tele­vi­sion together.