Before I go any further I feel like I need to give a little background on my relationship with dogs. First, I have never owned a dog, grown up with a dog, and have never lived with a roommate who had a dog. I have friends who own dogs and my sister has a dog but other than occasional visits my time spent around dogs has been limited. Second, I know absolutely nothing about training them or caring for them other than the basics like taking them for walks and giving them food. Third, I have never been what I consider to be a "dog person." Sure I think they are cute and I have known some really sweet ones, but I have never dreamt of owning a dog or even pictured myself as a dog owner.
Now that I have said that, you are probably wondering (given my past history) how the heck I ended up with a dog this weekend. Well, in a way this was an unplanned pregnancy. Erik and I have been discussing getting a dog for awhile. He grew up with dogs and his parents have 3 at their house (who Erik is crazy about). I was amenable to the idea because I thought having a dog around the house would be good protection. My neighborhood isn't bad per se, but there are the occasional break ins (I do live in the city of Atlanta after all) and I felt like a dog would be a good deterrant to potential criminals.
We had a lot of discussions about what kind of dog we would want to get and I was pretty insistent that if we got any dog it would have to be a rescue. For awhile we were looking online and checking out the dogs up for adoption at the local Petsmart or PetCo on weekends when I would need to pop in and buy food for the cats. I don't think either of us ever saw animal that particularly struck us so we would move on and that would be that.
Yesterday we were out running errands and I noticed Erik driving a different way to get out of the shopping plaza we were in. I asked if he needed to make a stop by Target (which was the direction we were headed) but he said he just wanted to drive by PetCo to see if there were any dogs outside waiting to be adopted. I'm not sure what made me say it but I blurted out, "well you know if you want to look at dogs we can always go by the Atlanta Humane Society." I fully expected him to say something like "yeah,we could but not today" but instead he put the address into his gps and off we went.
Of course the conversation on the way over there went something like this:
Erik: "You know we can't adopt a dog today."
Me: "Yeah totally. We do not need to get a dog today."
Chuckle, chuckle.
So we get to the Atlanta Humane Society (which is very nice by the way) and head over to look at the dogs in the kennels. Talk about heartbreaking. It was like walking through puppy jail. Don't get me wrong, the dogs were well taken care of but they all just looked so lonely and sad. Then we went into a separate room, which I'll call the "puppy room" where there were all kinds of little guys playing and waiting to be adopted. This room was a much happier place. Erik and I made our way over to this one bin where there was a litter of about 6 puppies. I had looked online prior to our arrival and had taken a liking to one puppy in particular and I saw her amongst this litter. Sadly, she was adopted just minutes after we had first walked in the door.
As we were studying the other pups from the same litter a couple walks over to put one that they were holding back into the bin. They asked if I wanted to hold her and I took one look at her sweet face and said of course. She was the only brindle-coated puppy of the litter and she immediately began licking me all over and curled up in my arms. Needless to say, I didn't want to put her down. It wasn't minutes later before Erik was filling out the paperwork for adoption and an hour or so later we were walking to the car with our new puppy.
Talk about an unexpected afternoon!
So here are the basic stats on our new dog:
Name: Lulu
Sex: Female
Birthday: around May 12, 2011 (which means she is a little more than 2 1/2 months old)
Breed: American Pit Bull Terrier/Labrador Retriver Mix
Weight: 9 pounds
Coloring: Brindle (black/brown/tan zebra-like pattern)
She has been really sweet so far. She's definitely had a few "accidents" in the house but that's to be expected until she is potty-trained. She slept pretty good last night--only cried for a little bit and then was out for about 4 hours. Erik got up around 4:30 to take her out and neither of us could go back to sleep (even though she did) so I am pretty exhausted. Erik stayed home with her today and I feel better knowing that he is there as she adjusts to her first full day in her new home.
All in all I would say I am excited for this adventure. I'm still very nervous about being a dog owner (I have these fears that my dog is going to be that bad dog that everyone hates to be around) but I've been reading a lot about lab/pit mixes and everyone says they make great dogs--very loyal, loving, and smart--so that makes me relax a bit. I was also worried about how my cats would take to the new addition but they seem to be doing better than I expected and, with a bit of adjustment, I think everything will work out okay in that department.
So that's that. I have a dog and her name is Lulu. She is adorable, sweet, playful, and has definitely captured my heart. So yes, I'm in trouble. Big trouble.
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| Meet Lulu! |
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