Meeting Milly...Part 2: Picking out a Dog

I can tell you right off, looking at puppies was not an option. Puppies will almost always find homes and I was not prepared to return to potty training, etc. Although...with an adult dog you run the risk of not having any control over your dogs personality or their current behaviors. Plus, as much as I hate to say it, alot of adult dogs are surrendered because their owners couldn't handle whatever quirks the dog had and decided to dump the dog rather than fix it~humans give up on their dogs much quicker than the dogs give up on the humans. So you are sort of left wondering what quirks you might be taking on. Regardless, we were there to look and save a dog... not look and fall in love with a puppy. Because yeah, yeah, all puppies are cute. We know.
After being allowed into the tent it was overwhelming. You really didn't even know where to go first, crate after crate was filled with dogs. Big dogs, furry dogs, skinny dogs, dogs giving puppy eyes, dogs hoping you wont see them and talk to them, dogs who couldn't stop barking, dogs who jumped, dogs who laid, purebreds, mixed muts, and hybrids I'm sure. Every single kind of dog you could imagine. Aside from an adult, we knew we would prefer a small female dog, but we weren't set on anything. When the kids suggested they wanted "this kind of dog or that" I would quickly remind them that we would get the dog that needed us. Its not like sitting at home thinking "i want a Labrador" and going to the store to pick one out.
Abi was fast to settle on Chelsea. Chelsea was a tiny little white jack Russell terrier, her name tag said she was 5 years old...and DEAF! Chelsea was endearing. She was small, she was quiet, she was covered in scars that told a less than pleasant past. We took out Chelsea's name tag and got in line to inquire about her (yes another line! can you believe it?) I told John as I stood there I kind of felt like I was wasting time just finding out how Chelsea could manage in our home with our dogs and kids~and I knew John was triple worried about a deaf dog in OUR house. He made his way out of the line and asked some of the nearby staff who explained Chelsea's inability to hear has caused her to scrap whenever she feels unsafe or violated. A simple sniff to Chelsea's hind-end leaves her feeling vulnerable and she is quick to retaliate. John explained to Abi that really Chelsea was not the right dog for us and Abi turned to me in line and shook her head "no".
After seeing her shake her head I exited the line knowing we again needed to begin our search for the "perfect" dog. There were alot of Jack Russells, a breed John has always wanted (yet I was never as convinced). There was one little female who barely moved..no matter how much you called to her. She laid there unimpressed by the throngs of people. She was not the cutest dog I had ever seen, and her lack of motivation had me somewhat concerned. The staff told John her name was Shelly and she got along great with other dogs. Apparently being crated with 6 other dogs did little to disrupt Shelly's life. John grabbed her name tag and again we made our way to the line. Abi was quick to remind me that "we would be all the way up there if you hadn't gotten out of line!" to which I replied... "Thank you smart one, I was not staying in line if we had not picked out a dog yet". While this line was much shorter than the first it seemed to last forever. After reaching yet another table a girl quickly ran through some questions to determine if we were qualified owners. A list of questions any seasoned liar could write off without much thought... They grabbed Shelly, gave us her paperwork, and we were FINALLY on our way back to Terrytown, USA. What a day.
After all that work we had no idea what we had just walked away with. Really, we had NO CLUE what we had just gotten ourselves into. But we both quickly dismissed our woes, and focused on the fact that we had just saved a dog that may have otherwise been killed for no good reason.