Meet Henry...... and think about adopting a dog.(Okay, I admit this article has nothing to do with real estate and I swore I would only write articles about real estate statistics, information and trends, area information, etc. But it has been a long day at the computer looking at July stats so I thought I would digress.... )
It had been a while since my husband and I had been without a dog. Between the two of us, dogs have been a part of our lives since 1975. We lost our most recent dog in the fall of last year to kidney failure. Zippy was with us for 15 years. We had rescued her from the pound in 1991 and were fortunate to have her until the fall of 2006. We vowed we would get another dog, but waited until we were not traveling so much.
We, or I, started our search online this time. There is a great website for locating dogs from all over the country. I spent a fair amount of time online looking at all the dogs in need of a home. Pretty heartbreaking stories. It makes you want to take them all home. There were dogs who were blind, without a limb or had socialization problems. By the way, a word of warning, do not start looking at these sites until you are truly ready to get a dog!
A couple of weeks ago, we saw a little Yorkie, named Curtis, on The Seattle Humane Society website. He looked cute and very much like our Silky Terrier, Zippy. He is ten years old and has some health issues. Apparently, he had been found by King County animal control and had been shipped off to The Humane Society for treatment. He had had a flea problem and subsequent skin issues. Some of his fur had been shaved off so he could heal. His back end was not a pretty sight! His face, however, was just adorable.
Here is how it works at The Humane Society:
When you go to The Humane Society, they let you look at all the dogs in the kennels. If you are interested in meeting one of the dogs or cats, you take the animal's information to one of the volunteers. After meeting with the volunteer about the dog or cat, you are then able to meet the animal. We met our Yorkie prospect in one of the "private" fenced-in areas. At first, it did not go well. This dog was completely distracted by all the other dogs and people walking by. Even though the area in which you "meet and greet" the dogs is mostly private, there are still spots in the fence in which a dog can see everything else going on. The dog across the way, who was "meeting" with some other people, was having the same problem. He also was unable to focus on the people who were trying to meet him.
We spent about 40 minutes with "Curtis" and barely connected. We were just about to give up when I asked if there was a private space in which we could meet with the dog. Fortunately, we were able to use their kitchen/workroom for about 10 minutes. At that point, we got a few minutes in which "Curtis" actually focused on us. We went outside with him and he allowed us to hold him while he still "supervised" all the action. It was at that moment we decided we might have a chance to win his affection and we chose to adopt him.
I have to say, he's been just great. He's kind of quiet, which is okay as he is an old guy. He is really sweet, and, after a just a few weeks with us, he is appearing to be very comfortable. He has found all of the furniture to be quite to his liking! I am pretty impressed with how comfortable he seems to be. No one knows how long he was out on the street.
If you are thinking of getting a dog or cat, think about adopting. There are so many wonderful animals in need of a home you will have a lot of choices. Contrary to what many people think, adopting an older dog does not always mean you will find a dog with lots of issues. Just remember, if you go to The Humane Society in Bellevue, ask to have a private space even for a few minutes if your dog is really distracted. If we had not done that, we would probably have left without our dog.
By the way, the dogs are given names if they are strays and no one knows the dog's name. Our dog was called Curtis, but never responded to this name. There is already a new "Curtis" on the society's website.
We spent a lot of time going through names for a while. Radar was our first choice since the dog was so on alert when we were trying to meet him, but we soon tired of that. We went through a lot of possibilities. I loved Laptop, since he is clearly a lap dog, but knew that was a just a joke. After, Jake, Buster, Scottie, Scooter, etc. we settle on Henry. Henry is not a typical dog's name, but it fits our older guy.
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