Life and Other Projects: April 2014

If you've talked to me in the last year or two, you probably already know that I've been wanting to get a puppy. We had two kitties already, so we were taking our time to find the right one to add to our family.

Well, that, and finding a rescue puppy is harder than you might think. We had to wait for "puppy season" (ie. spring), we found lots of cute ones on Petfinder.com but found that the postings were not always up-to-date, so what looked like a puppy was in fact 10 months old now. Not to mention the fact that the adoption process is very strict and maybe a little overprotective of the rescue dogs. I get that they want their dogs to go to a good home, but some of these rescue organizations made it difficult for Chris and I to find a dog, and honestly, we're ideal pet owners. So basically, I got frustrated a lot.

But then one day my co-worker asked me to pull up Petfinder on our lunch break and we saw a lot of puppies at Helping Hounds Dog rescue in Dewitt, which is very close to my work. And I'm happy to say Helping Hounds was wonderful. They were pretty quick about processing my application and they definitely make a reasonable effort to get the dogs in good homes, but they don't make you feel bad about yourself for not having a fully fenced in yard or anything.

Anyway, Chris and I went to the rescue and the first dog we were drawn to was this little guy. They called him PeeWee and he was listed as a Beagle/Terrier mix, although they were just guessing. We took him for a walk and he was just so happy and interested in Chris and I. He was calm around other dogs and he loved being held.

Afterward, we put him back in his crate and took a couple other dogs out for a walk as well. Each time we returned to the puppy room, PeeWee got all excited and watched us intently. But he was pretty quiet, just wagging his tail and trying to reach his paw out at Chris.

So at 6pm, the rescue was closing and we were getting ready to leave. We wanted to think about it overnight. And PeeWee just started barking and whining and staring at Chris. So Chris walked over and took him out of the crate.

And didn't put him down again until he was ours.

The little guy was just so happy to be in his arms and he just really seemed to respond to us. I guess you could say he chose us.

Admittedly, he's a smaller breed than we were planning on getting, but we're not really sure how big he'll get. He's about 12 weeks right now and weighs around 5 lbs.

He's mostly house broken, but we've had a few slip ups. We're working on it though and are hopeful that in another month he'll be able to go all night without needing to go out.

Turns out house training a dog is mostly just anticipating when he needs to go out and preventing accidents. And eventually he'll figure it out.

He is doing pretty well with the cats. Oreo, who has lived with dogs before, is wary of him, but tries to stand his ground. Shadow has mostly kept his distance, but hasn't gone into hiding like he does when we have visitors. So that's encouraging.

We haven't decided on a name yet. PeeWee is cute, but not really our taste for a dog name. Here are the suggestions our friends and family have come up with so far:

Lou

Roscoe

Joey

Checkers

Walker

Alabama

The puppy was dropped off at a high-kill shelter in Alabama and then shipped up to New York to get adopted. So that's why we came up with that name. Walker is an homage to our zombie love (a lot of movies call zombies "walkers"). My friend Kristen came up with that one and it may be my favorite so far.