Jeremy

I met a great dog today. His name is Jeremy and he is a little look alike Morgan type with the kind of face only a mother would love.  He is a Brussels mix and is at a shelter looking for a new home. I first saw him when I was doing my bored at work weekly browse through the Petfinders available dogs search. He has a super cute face and I loved his little picture. He was listed for the shelter as being found as a stray and if anyone owned him to come and claim him.   It said that he would become available for adoption after the 8^th of the month, and I figured someone would either claim him as their own, or swoop him up. Because he is all the things people tend to want in a dog, small, cute, and potty trained.  Imagine my shock when the next week he was still listed as being available. At this point I got that little seed planted in my head about maybe making him my new dog. 

 

It doesn’t take that much for me to get that seed planted I’ll admit. I mean I love animals and when I had two dogs it was just twice the awesomeness. I really do think that my dog want a friend, even if she is enjoying being an only dog just as much. Like I mentioned before, I’m not desperate for the second dog... but I also don’t want to miss out on any opportunities to find one.  This entire last week I showed all my co-workers his link on the shelter website,  I looked at his pictures multiple times a day,   I even looked up the hours of the shelter,  and found that in order for me to go visit I would have to leave work a little early.  I figured that over the weekend someone might adopt him so that would be that. But then today as I was laughing with my co-workers about his cute face and our afternoon was slow so our boss asked if someone would go home an hour or two early, I said I’m going to go and visit him. “Just visit” I said, I think that I need to meet him in person.  Everyone was like “oh if you go your going to take him home” but I knew that I could just go visit and be smart about it. Because ultimately what is most important to me about my second dog is that Morgan loves it and vice verse. 

  

So I drive to the shelter and ask to visit him. He is way cute and totally reminds me of scruffy Morgan. He came right to the front of the kennel and wanted pets and rubs. The guy told me a little about his story. He was 5 years old and had been owned by a man who had been sick and ended up passing away. He was found in a neighborhood and a lot of people called the shelter saying they knew who he was and that his owner had passed away. No one came to claim him so after the 10 days he is free to go to a new home.  I got to take him to a play area where he pretty much just sniffed around and peed on stuff. Eventually he got ok enough for me to give him a few pets on the head, and after a few treats he got comfortable enough to jump on my lap. After about 15-20 minutes another worker came in and we seriously talked all about his personality and he asked if I wanted to move forward and have a dog meet and greet with my dog.

 At this point I was feeling really positive about it. I mean he was exactly the kind of dog I had been looking for.  Isn’t if funny how people tend to stick with a type. I mean part of why I loved him is because he looked so similar to Morgan. The huge reason that 6 years ago I was in a different shelter looking at a then stray Morgan was because she looked so much like other dog Bandit. I really have a soft spot for the scruffy mutts for sure.  If I was even going to have a dog rescue I would totally name it SUM… standing for Save Ugly Mutts. Please don’t steel that if any of you want to.  So anyways I was feeling good about moving forward and letting Jeremy meet Morgan. So we took them out to a different play yard, and let them sniff each other on the leash, So far so good. They both seemed relaxed and happy and comfortable. After a few minutes I took Morgan off her leash and we kept him on his. There were a few times when he kind of jumped right into her face and she growled but he seemed to get the correction and backed off. After about 10 minutes we took him off the leash as well and let them both run around together.  What I learned over the next 25 minutes or so, is that I could tell he was really into Morgan, He wanted to get her to play with him , and he kept doing that follow her around all the time thing that dogs do when they want to play. Morgan did what she always does, sniff. She couldn’t care less about this little thing chasing her, jumping on her and bothering her. That was the problem she was totally indifferent.  I knew right then that unfortunately he wasn’t the dog for us.

The thing is that I am trying to approach the new dog hunt as not just for me but for Morgan too. I mean I know she is getting older, but I remember how she was when I first brought her home and she and Bandit would play all day long. She adored him and I know that she must miss him as much as I do.  I mean I know that she misses having someone to cuddle with, keep her company in the car, help her feel more safe and confident.  But I do not want to force a new relationship on her. I honestly think that the perfect dog is out there and like all my other pets they have just kind of happened by chance.  And I am sure that Jeremy will find a really great home this weekend. Hopefully one with another young dog who will allow him to play with them all day long, like it seems he wants to. I am sad that I didn’t get to have him be my cool new dog. But I am proud of myself for being able to walk away because it wasn’t the right fit.   Now as Morgan is sleeping with her head propped up against my leg as I’m typing this, I wonder if I even really want another dog when the one I have is just so perfect. 

Morgan is tired after her exhausting day