We’ve officially added to our family!

As I wrote a few weeks ago, my husband and I have been considering adopting another dog. We lost our sweet Reilly (our beagle of 14 years) to cancer in May.

For everyone who has lost a pet, you know the sadness and emptiness your house feels for sometime after the pet moves on. Reilly led a full and wonderful life. I know he is at peace, but I still miss him everyday.

 

For that reason, it was hard for me to think about bringing another dog into our home.

 

We have a little terrier mix, Oreo, and my mindset was that maybe he should just be an only-dog. But some animals are naturally pack animals, and that is certainly the case with Oreo.

Everyday he would try to play or snuggle with one of our two cats. While they were kind to him, they certainly weren’t interested in playing, and snuggling for a minute or two was about all they could handle.

 

But something shifted in me about a month ago, and I knew I was ready.

 

I think many people can relate- just one day you’re ready. You can’t rush it, and when it’s right, it’s right.

With that in mind, I went down to the City of Sacramento Front Street Animal Shelter during my lunch break. The shelter is closed Monday and Tuesday, so Wednesday at noon is the first opportunity to see the dogs that have come in over the past few days. The shelter holds dogs for fours days before they are available for adoption, so all the dogs that came in over the weekend were available for the first time.

 

I walked around the shelter for just a minute until I spotted the dog that instantly took my heart.

 

 

She is a little terrier mix, just like our Oreo. And she is only 12 pounds, so they are almost equal in weight- although she is a little leaner and taller- something won’t point out to Oreo, don’t want to hurt his pride!

 

The volunteers and staff at Front Street are the best!

 

Someone was there to help me right away when I asked if I could spend some time with the dog in the “meet and greet” area. They also put her on hold for the rest of the afternoon so my husband and Oreo could have their “meet and greet” time with her. Though they are open until 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, they only allow visitations with the animals until 5 pm. We got there at about 4:30 p.m., so plenty of time to really interact with her and see how she would do with Oreo.

The vet techs at the shelter spent time with us in the meet and greet area as well. They watched the two dogs interact, gave us their best guess about her personality (shy, but a total cuddle bug) and answered any questions we had.

 

By 5:15 p.m., we had signed all the paperwork and she was officially ours!

 

 

We couldn’t take her home yet, because Front Street also holds the dog until they can be fixed (spayed or neutered). Her surgery is this week, and then we get to pick her up at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Needless to say, we can’t wait!

 

I want to give the biggest thanks to all the staff at Front Street and their dedicated volunteers.

 

The work you do is so hard, and I know it must be heart-breaking at times. But you also bring so much joy to people’s lives. We are thrilled to add this sweet dog to our family.

 

Now the next question… What to name her?!