Every month during the warmer seasons we hold an adoption event at a local store. This will be the first one I've attended as a foster mom and I want to be sure my kiddos do me proud. I'll be taking Patch and Annie, Piper is still just beginning her two week hold time. I'm fairly certain that a special needs dog like Patch won't get adopted, and I'm not sure I want him to be. Patch is not a dog for a spur of the moment decision. He's going to take time and a commitment to working with him every day. I would rather keep him for the rest of his life than send him to a home that sticks him in the yard and ignores him again because he's too much work.
The night before the event I give Annie a bath. She's less than thrilled but comes out soft and smelling wonderful. We get up Saturday morning, the dogs eat breakfast and we get ready to go. I hook both Patch and Annie up to leashes and head out the front door to load them up in the car. Patch seems to enjoy riding in cars but for some reason doesn't like to get in and today is no different. While I'm bodily shoving Patch's butt into the back seat Annie pulls back on her leash and manages to slip her collar. Great! This ought to be fun!
Annie starts to run in big loops around the front yard. I'm trying to call her back to me and she seems to think it's all a game. She ducks thru the hedges and runs into the old biddy next doors front yard. Just what I need, this lady hates dogs and has hated us since the day we moved in. A few years ago she even called the dog police and told them my elderly Newfoundland had jumped over the 6 ft wood fence and pooped in her yard! She admitted she didn't actually see him, but she knew it was him! Thank goodness the animal control officer knew me and had a solid sense of reality.
Annie has now run between the houses and is running laps in the old ladies back yard. I'm having visions of said old lady stepping out her back door with a shot gun and starting to blast away. Finally I convince Annie to come back and put her in the back seat with Patch, who is panting like a freight train because he's been locked in a car with no windows down for 10 minutes. Wonderful, we're going to be late AND I'll get to smell like dog breath all day! We've hit the highway and are cruising along, Patch has his head out the window and seems to be enjoying the wind blowing his ears back, he's got a big smile on his face. No sooner has the thought "I hope he doesn't decide to go out the window" cross my mind then I look back and see Patch trying to do just that. He's got one front leg out the window and is trying to push off the arm rest with his back legs. Suddenly I'm slamming on the brakes, swerving towards the side of the road and grabbing Patch's collar and yanking for all I'm worth. I get him all the way back inside and roll the window up so there's only a few inches of space.
It's a nice day and there seems to be a steady flow of people stopping to look at the dogs. Because Carol had a prior commitment today my two kiddos are the only dogs being offered. Several people seem fascinated with Patch but as I suspected no one is ready to take the challenge. Soon an older gentlemen and his two grandkids stop and decide to adopt Annie.
I'm a little torn over this adoption. I'm glad Annie has found a home, but I'm concerned because the gentlemen seems a little gruff and Annie needs a gentle touch. I do my best to give him a detailed description of her personality, probably far more than he actually cared to know. We're only half way thru the morning so the decision is made to head out to Carol's and pick up one of her puppies, Freddie to show for the rest of the morning.
Freddie is an instant hit. A man and two kids on bikes stop by and look at him then leave. Soon the man and the kids father are back on bikes to look at Freddie. Next it's the mother and one of the kids....all of them love him but are undecided if they are ready for a new dog as they've just had to return theirs because it bit someone. by the end of the morning I have the mom and her two kids walking Freddie around on a leash. At the same time I have two other families that want to look at him. Wow...Freddie has a waitlist!
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