We got a new dog

On Friday, my wife Patricia emailed me at work with this link and the question "what do you think about this dog?"

As my loyal Jr. Intergalactic Gladiators know, our dog Scotch was very sick and we had to put her down in October. We wanted to get another dog, but we didn't want to do it right away. First, Patrica's last two dogs Xuxa and Scotch were rescued and they came to her in a way. She felt very strongly that she wanted a dog to come to her. Second, we didn't want to just jump out and replace our last pet. Finally, we wanted some time to get Scotchie's hair cleaned out of the house. We were not entirely successful in that because Scotch was a saluki/collie mix and had hair a lot like a collie. That meant that she was either blowing her summer coat or her winter, and that hair was just about everywhere.



So we were waiting for the right time and we did look at dogs once or twice, but it didn't seem right. My wife emailed me and immediately I showed the pictures to people in my office, telling them how we wanted to adopt her from the Humane Society. Everyone who saw the pictures agreed that we should rescue that dog.

Additionally, Friday was my wife's birthday (An Irish-American born on St. Patrick's Day has to be named Patricia...) and a student who she didn't even know came up to her that afternoon and said "Today's your birthday? You should buy a dog." From the mouths of babes.

So Friday, I got home too late for us to go to the shelter. Saturday, we had several errands to run and I started freaking out a bit that we wouldn't be able to get to her. A lot of people go to the shelter on Saturdays and I am very proud that they want to help these animals, but I don't want them to take mine.

So we get there, and a volunteer is standing in the lobby with that very dog on a leash. I walked up to them holding Kiera in my arms and asking about the dog. The volunteer said that they were waiting to see if she would get along with another dog, so we were dismayed to discover that she was most likely taken.

We were in luck, though, as she was soon returned to her cage. We quickly got her from another volunteer and took her out to the courtyard. We were told that we had to spend a half hour if we wanted to adopt and after a few minutes, my wife went back inside and returned with the paperwork filled out. I couldn't believe that thirty minutes went by like that. After an interview and a discussion about her shot records and health, we were walking out of there with a new dog.



The dog is very smart and very sweet. She and I bonded rapidly because, as you know, I am the dog whisperer. She bonded with Patricia and Kiera pretty speedily as well. All she wants to do is play and run when she’s outside, but inside she lies around and is pretty snuggily.

As you can see from the site, her name coming out of the shelter was Cuba. We considered keeping it and I was thinking of stretching it a bit to Cuba Libre, because nothing’s quite like a rum and Coke, but her name swiftly became Shamrock. We found her on St. Patrick’s Day, after all.