Beware of Rolling Trash Cans

I can only imagine what was going through Scoobs’ mind as we were walking out of the shelter. I can tell you for certain one thing, there was no way in hell he was going to get into my car. There I am, in the parking lot, asking the dog to get into the car, who doesn’t really know his name yet, and he won’t jump in. I am thinking for sure they are going to come back out and get him. Thankfully, the volunteers who introduced us to Scoobs were outside walking another dog and she told me that when she put him in the car, she had to lift him. Ah…got it. So Scoobs is finally in the car and we are on our way home. First we need to stop at my ex husband’s house because he and his wife have graciously decided to watch Scoobs for us while we went away to Colorado. This was offered before we knew we were getting him. I had some concerns on how this would be for him but seeing as though the shelter told me that taking him home and then boarding him while were away was a better option than the shelter, I felt like we were ok. This was all contingent on Scoobs getting along with their dog. Did I have a back up plan if this didn’t work? No not really. THANKFULLY the dogs got along great. My daughter was off to dinner with them so I was flying solo on bringing Scoobs home. Now I clearly remember bringing my daughter home and feeling somewhat scared and clueless but this was a bit different. I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea truly what kind of dog he is or what happened to him. As soon as we got home I kept him on the leash and let him explore, which he did a lot of. Then I gave him some food and showed him his blankets, crate, and toys. As I was making myself some dinner he decided to park in the kitchen with me and lay on the floor.

I thought it would be fun to take him for a walk. We did a loop around the neighborhood and all seemed to be going well. I was thinking, ok maybe I got this. Then we were walking and there was a dog running around the neighborhood without its owner and didn't have a collar or a leash. I start to panic because I know Scoobs will want to play with him but I have NO clue what this dog is like. Fortunately one of my neighbors was outside, knew of this dog and called its name to go away. Eventually the owner came out and brought him back inside. I was talking to my neighbor for a bit and then went back to the house. It happened to be recycle day so I thought, ok, I will bring up the recycle can from the street. BAD CHOICE. Scoobs started FREAKING out. I kept moving which was not the best idea and he wiggled out of his collar and started to run away from me. OMG! So here I am running through the streets of my neighborhood calling for a dog who has only known his name for 2 weeks. He of course keeps running. Finally, he stopped, I walked calmly towards him and he sat and let me put on his collar. As I have told this story others have told me their dog feels the same way. So maybe this story can help you. My next item of business was to give him a bath, I wanted to wash the shelter off of him. To my surprise he just stood in the bath and let me wash him. After all of this fun, I was exhausted. He went right into his crate and we went to bed. It was this night that I realized I needed to start writing all of this down, because I had a feeling this would be the first of many hilarious Scoobs adventures!

Life comes as you fast!

After spending some time getting adjusted to the fact that we might not get Scoobs I decided to call the shelter and check on the status of my application and inquire about the puppies they told me about. I called on a Monday around 3:30, she asked for my name and said “Well your application says approved pending a meet and greet with the family”. Um, excuse me? The shelter point blank told me yesterday that I had no shot at getting this dog and now you are telling me he can be mine! A wave of excitement fell over me followed very quickly by a wave of fear…yep straight up fear. The shelter was closing so we had to do the meeting the following day. THANK GOD!

After work I went directly to PetSmart armed with my “What I need to have at the house when I take home a dog I have no clue what to do with list” that I ran by pretty much everyone I know that has a dog. I wandered around the store for about 2 hours. I started with leashes and collars and I am annoyed that there are no good boy dog collars (a new Purplelicious dog line might be coming out as a result of this). Then I wandered to food, picked out a few toys, and then stared at the dog beds for close to an hour. First of all, why do they cost as much as a human mattress? Why are the patterns SO ugly? And the better question, what the heck size bed do I get? Feeling very overwhelmed the store dog trainer walked by and I asked for help. She talked me off of the ledge and said I didn’t need a bed right away and just to give him one or two blankets to lay on. Whew! She also gave my cart the once over and said I was in good shape with what I purchased for his first night at home.

Then I get home and my house looked like a tornado blew through it. Christmas still has not been put away, there is a staging area for all of our ski clothes (oh I didn’t mention we were going away? I will get there), and really just general mess because I am single mother who works full time and also has an accessories business. What I “should” have been doing that night were some Purplelcious orders and those 45 cheer bows I was on the wild ribbon goose chase for, instead I cleaned my house top to bottom. I threw stuff away, folded clothes, vacuumed every room, mopped the floors, and made sure there was not one thing a dog could chew on the floor. I was up until 2am. I don’t think I have ever cleaned this thorough for anyone. Before I went to bed, I laid out all of the things I bought, set up his food bowls, found a place for the dog food and treats. I grabbed 2 of my daughters old fleece blankets and brought them into bed with me. I felt myself becoming a “dog person” and I didn’t even technically have the dog yet.

The next day I could barely concentrate at work. I was so excited at the possibility of getting Scoobs but also very scared. Could I do this? How will I know what to do? What if the meet and greet doesn't go well. I picked Bella up right after school and we went to the shelter. The meet and greet was awesome! He had so much fun running around the yard. Easily warmed up to Bella and really just wanted to play. You can tell he had enough of shelter life and wanted a place to run around! We were out there for a while, I am not sure if this is standard. The whole time I was thinking, "Are we good? It seems he likes us. What more do they need to know?" Finally the volunteer told us he thought we were all a good match and we could finish his paper work and take him home! What was ever more fun is the volunteers who were with Scoobs when we met him came to the shelter during our meet and greet. They said they wanted to say goodbye to him since they saw he had an adoption pending. It was cool to see them there, right at the moment we knew he owuld definitely be ours! I signed the paperwork, got the folder with all of his medical stuff, and was given the leash. Shaking with nerves and excitement we walked out of the shelter doors and our lives with Scoobs began.

The Application Process...and what a process!

Trust me, I get it. The application process to adopt a dog is a big deal. After what these dogs have been through, its important to make sure new owners will give them the life they deserve! I also learned that adopting a dog is bit like real estate. You have to act fast! I needed references since I have never had a dog. I was really hoping that would not hurt me. I envisioned them flipping to that page and saying, Ugh NO WAY, she’s a dog newbie. BUT thank goodness for amazing friends, especially ones that went above and beyond in telling the shelter how good I would be with a dog. They may have had a little too much confidence in me.

The night after meeting Scoobs I felt this very new feeling of emptiness. I missed him and he wasn't even mine. Then I felt myself checking my email every minute to see if the shelter replied to the follow up I sent via email because they were closed when we got home. I didn’t hear anything back so I called them when they opened the next day. I was basically told that the application ahead of mine looked really strong and that the chances of them getting Scoobs was really good. I felt my heart sink. Then it sunk even deeper when I had to share this news with my daughter. My daughter declared that she wanted to go to the shelter to see him anyway. And that is what we did. I thought maybe if I turned on my charm and showed that we were serious about this (were we?) maybe that would work in our favor. Visiting an animal shelter has got to be the most depressing thing ever. Seriously. Those poor little puppies, looking up at you with those eyes, silently screaming, “pick me, pick me!”, confused about why they are there and wondering what happened to them. Then there are the more aggressive ones that scare the crap out of you by jumping up on the cage. Understood hyper doggie, I don’t blame you for wanting out. We found Scoobs and he came right up to us with his tail wagging. Then he walked to the back of his kennel, grabbed the toy we got him the day before and showed it to us. Did you get chills? I was amazed and it made me want him even more, if that was even possible. His sheet said he was abandoned and animal control picked him up. Poor little guy. While we were looking at him one of the volunteers started talking to us. I told him we were the second application on him. He told me that to date everyone that was supposed to come pick up Scoobs has ended up not showing up. The volunteer at Petco told me the same thing. I couldn't imagine!! And to hear that, being the second application I couldn't help but hope that it would happen again with the people ahead of us so we could be the ones who show up and take him home! After our visit we looked around at some of the other dogs but we didn’t want anyone but Scoobs. I spoke with the people at the shelter, asked if maybe we could do the meet and greet since we were there and they basically told me to try to look for another dog. More heartbreak! They told me they transferred a poodle mix to another shelter and that they had some Bischon Poodle mix puppies set to be fixed that week. They said once my application was approved I could find the dog I wanted. We left the shelter, I was sad and my little one was filled with a bit of rage. I gave her the long talk in the car headed to the other shelter that Scoobs might not be our dog but the right one for us will come. Yada, yada, yada, she wasn’t buying it, neither was I for that matter. I always knew she was smart.

We arrived at the next shelter only to find out that said poodle mix just got adopted right before we got there. Of course we looked around, felt the ting on our hearts looking at more sad puppy eyes. I decided to take her to one more shelter and again, same story, same tears, and we just didn’t like anyone better than Scoobs. I knew the application ahead of ours was set to do their meet and greet the next day and to be honest I went to sleep hoping that it wouldn't work out.

I may have lost my mind…

Its a new year and again I find myself trying to breathe some new life into this blog. Well I think I have found a new muse. Look for a series of posts and new adventures about a little guy named Scoobs! I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I have enjoyed writing them!

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“That’s IT, I am getting a dog” I cried into the phone to my sister as I sat in the car with a screaming, scared 6 year old waiting for the police to come to my house because we discovered someone broke in while we were away. This was about 2 years ago and I didn’t really take action on that statement for a couple of reasons. 1. I didn’t really have the time and more importantly 2. We aren’t really "dog people". Now before you get upset let me explain. My mom is allergic to dogs and I am allergic to cats. Pets weren’t really an option in our house so I never grew up with a dog which I say doesn’t classify us as dog people. That does not mean that I don’t LOVE dogs, it just means I have absolutely no clue what to do when it comes to them.

Fast forward to last week when I was running around to all of the local craft stores looking for the perfect blue ribbon to match my daughter’s cheerleading uniform because I volunteered to make the hair bows. Being an overachiever sometimes gets the best of me but I will blog about those later. My daughter was not happy on this ribbon quest since we were already in 3 stores and she was getting hungry, NOT a good combo! I decided to stop and get us some lunch but the place we wanted to go didn’t have any parking spots (really?). So I promised her, “Just one more store” and we will come back, so she agreed as long as she got to buy something at the store. As we are walking into the craft store, they had some dogs outside of the PetCo. I asked Bella if she wanted to visit with them, but I think I may have wanted to more. See over the past couple of months, the idea of adopting a dog came to the fore front thanks to a post on a friends facebook page about a poodle mix that was thrown out of moving truck (Heartless jerks!). I thought about it, my sister gave me 7 reasons why I should go for it, I don’t remember all of them but they all made sense and I said ok let's do this! As soon as I sent a message saying we wanted to meet him, someone else adopted him. This sparked the research/stalking of local animal shelters websites and facebook pages and even a visit to one, where I told my daughter we were “just looking”. If we weren’t going away for Christmas, we would have started on this road a lot sooner! It also helped me realize that it was possible to adopt a poodle mix which I was in the market for due to their hypoallergenic tendencies. I had hoped that a poodle mix breed might be a dog my mom could be around. Back to last week, we walk up to the dogs outside with those little “adopt me” vests on and see this adorable tan and white dog, who is very friendly and named Scoobs.


I asked what kind of dog he was and she said a poodle mix. This is where I knew I was headed for trouble and I said, “Of course he is”. Scoobs captured our hearts, we played with him for about an hour, then went inside the store and bought him a toy which he loved. I think the volunteer was totally ready to go home but she let us sit and play with him. Throwing caution to the wind I filled out an application on him. As I was filling out the application I had to ask for help on every question. I thought, here you go, this woman is going to deny you right from the start. We were told we were the second application but to fill it out anyway as sometimes applications don't go through. We said our goodbyes, thanked the super nice volunteer, finished shopping, finally found a place to park for lunch, went home and waited to see if he would be ours.