The Ballad of a Dog Named Buddy, a Monster, and a girl – Change A Pet’s Life Day
Monster and I tossed around the idea of getting a dog off and on for a couple of years before we acted. We spent most of 2022 camping out on a friends farm. For those who have been following along, she’s one of monster’s exes. She’s the good ex-wife, not one of the evil ones. She an I started calling each other “sissy” quite a while back, the sisterhood of monster wives.
Sissy (he calls her Blissy) had a pack of 4 dogs that we absolutely fell in love with. Our visits became as much about getting out of the house as it was to visit our friend and the dogs. In September we were married at her farm surrounded by our family and friends.
It’s a night I will forever remember…
Blissy’s dogs were there too, in case you wondered.
From there, we’ll fast forward to February of 2023. Blissy then sadly informs us she has to move, and our fun times at the farm have come to an end. We probably could have fit in a night or two in sping
We were already feeling the effects of cabin fever from being in the house so much through winter, as I am absolutely not a cold weather person. Discussions about getting a dog keep coming up…
Monster loves dogs. Dogs seem to just love Monster too! Personally, girl here has only had a couple dogs in her life and only 2 were ever hers. So while I love animals, I’ve usually had a cat in the house because to me they are just easier.
Keep a clean litter, fresh water and food and you have a happy cat pretty easily. Cats are pretty easy and independent in my mind. Unfortunately Monster is extremely allergic to cats. So no cat in girls life. No animals in Monster’s life for quite awhile either.
The conversations in my mind were going a lot like this… A dog would get us up moving more when we are home. The amount of exercise we would get would be great for us, especially when we are not camping or traveling. If we adopt instead of buy we can save an animal and give it a “furever” home.
So I started looking at the websites of the local animal shelters.
Then I got to thinking again, I know here we go down another rabbit hole, what type of dog do we both want, size, breed, coloring, sex … there’s so much to consider. More discussions between monster and girl, looking at different breeds and their characteristics, personalities, and energy levels.
Oh yes energy levels are something we had to consider a lot. With Monster and I both being disabled some days are a struggle for us. So we had to then consider whether adding a dog to our lives would even be a good idea. How well would we manage if we are both struggling at the same time? Can we provide the needed enrichment and physical activity needs of a dog?
Of course then the financial portion of owning a pet also came up and we swirled around in that discussion for awhile. All through these discussions I kept looking at the animal shelter sites for a medium sized male dog. As that is all we knew for sure at that point.
Looking at pictures of different dogs and reading what information there was on them became an obsession for a couple of weeks for me. During that time we realized we didn’t really want to get a puppy, but didn’t want a senior either.
Puppy proofing our home was not a task we were willing to undertake, and we wanted a dog that could hopefully live a full life with us, a companion. It’s now the end of March and I’ve narrowed it down to a couple of dogs that I keep coming back to on the sites.
More discussions between Monster and I about how we would care for a dog, and how to handle things. I keep coming back to one dog in particular. Male, 2 years old, tan and white with a goofy grin in his picture that I just am drawn to. He’s already potty trained according to the listing, another plus for him.
I show him to Monster and he says ok, we can go look if you want.
I’m instantly excited but they aren’t open it’s night time. I have to wait till the next day. That night I dreamed about having this dog, and how much I was going to enjoy having him in our lives. I dreamed about Monster playing with him and I woke up the next morning happy and excited.
Anyone who knows girl, knows that I am absolutely not a morning person. I need coffee and preferable to be left alone till I am more awake and have drank at least a cup of coffee. I’d love to get two cups in, but hey one works most days.
So coffee that morning, check emails and back to the shelter site to look at the adoption process, the hours, and everything else I can read while I’m getting awake. I always make sure that I know as much information as possible on something before I bring it up with monster to actually do it. This way I can answer his many questions. Yes Monster asks a lot of questions, but I honestly don’t mind it. How else is he to know? He doesn’t need to look it up if I have already done so.
Ok, time to bring it up with Monster again… It’s Monday, April 4th in the afternoon, shelter is open now. I’ve already tried to put in an online application for a dog there but it doesn’t go through. Talk to Monster…
20 minutes later we are out the door to go meet Buddy, the dog that I have been in love with his picture for a week already and even dreamed about. My excitement level and anxiety are both super high. The drive to the shelter seemed to take forever to me but we finally get there.
In we go and stop at the desk to inquire where we go to see the dogs that are up for adoption. We are told to go downstairs and around to the right and you can’t miss it.
So off we go past all these cages of cats that look so sad. My heart is all a flutter for them but I have a mission to see Buddy. We come around the corner and see the kennels of dogs. We walk past them briefly looking at the dogs, but not seeing Buddy. Ahh, I spot his empty one … look around for someone to ask about where he might be?
We are told he was outside in the fenced area right now. Off we go to the fence to see Buddy. There he is! Oh my goodness! He was larger than I expected but so very handsome!
Monster and I are both talking to him and he seems very friendly, no barking, tail is wagging, looking at us and seems happy. Neither of us try to touch him, as we know better than to stick our fingers in through a fence at a strange dog.
Believe me I wanted to … I wanted to go right in, pet and hug him then take him home with me right there. We decide to ask about seeing him in a room. The shelter has rooms for meet and greets with an animal before you decide to adopt. However we needed to have an approved application for adoption before we would be allowed to do that.
Back upstairs we go to get the application filled out and find out how long we would have to wait. Application was easy and pretty straight forward. They said the lady that needed to approve the application was busy but would get to it as soon as possible.
There was nothing more we could do at that time but wait. So we decide to head home and wait for the phone call. We get back in the car and I’m in almost tears because we have to leave him there. I was already attached by the heart to a dog I had yet to actually “meet”.
Monster and I talked all the way home about getting him. We live about 25 minutes away from the shelter. We get home, settle in at our computers to wait for a phone call.
It doesn’t take long, we were sitting no more than 10 minutes when my phone rang and they said we were approved and could set up an appointment to come back and do a meet and greet with Buddy.
The lady on the phone said we could come in just about anytime, and I looked at the clock, then at Monster and told her we could be there in about 30 minutes if that would be alright. She said yes, that would be fine and put us on the schedule.
Here goes my emotions again, I’m super excited all over again, barely able to contain it while I am driving. I set the cruise control to keep form speeding. We finally are back at the shelter.
In we go, they direct us to a small room with half a door that has a bin of toys and a small sofa. We sit down and wait for them to bring us Buddy. In the next few moments our lives changed Monster, girl and Buddy. Buddy was brought in and he came to us easily, tail wagging with the cutest look.
He loved being petted and had no qualms about giving us kisses and love like he already belonged to us. The woman that brought him in said he was quicker to warm up to women than men, but he seemed to be doing fine with Monster.
Remember I said earlier that dogs love Monster, well it’s certainly true.
Buddy was an absolute delight to meet. His fur was so very soft I figured he must have recently had a bath. He was just perfect. So adorable and loving. We ended our meet and greet after about 20 minutes and promptly went upstairs to let them know we would like to adopt Buddy.
My excitement is overwhelming at this point and my heart is so full, but there is paperwork to do and information I need to listen to about his history as well as instructions to take him to a vet within 72 hours of adoption for a check up. All this takes close to an hour to get done and then a woman brought Buddy up to us on a blue leash and he was all smiles and excitement.
The shelter gave us a small amount of food, a couple of new toys and wished us well. Pictures were taken and off we went with Buddy to his furever home.
April 4th 2022, Monster and girl changed a pet’s life, and that pet has enhanced our lives. We are a very happy family. Buddy is more than just a pet, he is truly family. Our lives have changed so very much since that day… and while some days are not that great, I would not change a thing.
We have come a long way in the last 10 months with Buddy through good and bad times with medical treatments and things. I’ll leave those stories for another time though.
