Jaci Dawn

I thought it was odd that I didn’t hear from the pound by Tuesday afternoon. The dog was supposed to have been scheduled for neutering on Tuesday & I planned on getting him on Wednesday. By Wednesday, I was a nervous wreck but when I called the pound, all I got was an answering machine. And Thursday when they called me back, they said my home phone was disconnected so they’d given the dog to someone else.

Turns out that they were dialing a wrong number! But it didn’t matter: the dog was scheduled to be neutered on Friday and he was going home with these other people on Saturday.

And my heart went into a tailspin because I really liked that dog and I’d put myself through a lot just finding, meeting, and picking out a dog. Plus, I’d purchased a dog carrier and a temporary dog pen with a mesh cover so the dog would be safe while I worked. We don’t have the big dog run built yet.

I was angry, hurt, disappointed – a billion emotions all running amok in my heart, but mostly angry. Angry at the pound, angry at God, angry at myself. Mostly angry at God.

Who better to blame? Like my brother said in my comments, “These things happen for a purpose.”

I fully believe that, but I’d built up my hopes and expectations so much that when the rug was pulled out from under me, I felt like a five year old kid who didn’t get the lollipop in the grocery store and I was mad.

I went on the search again, wrote down a ton of phone numbers of breeders to call this weekend and searched through the pets for adoption lists online once more. Just nothing jumped out at me. Lots and lots of wonderful dogs that need homes and lots of hoops to jump through to get one.

Did you realize that it is easier to purchase a purebred papered dog from a responsible breeder than it is to adopt a rescue dog from most shelters? There’s the application, proving you have a long-standing relationship with a veterinarian, and having to load up the whole fam-damily including your present dog to meet the new dog in a neutral place. (Trust me: neutral is a key word: what happens when the new dog shows up in the old dog’s turf is what will make or break the deal.) Buy a dog from a breeder and he’ll ask a few questions, maybe require an application, but what he really wants is your money.

It was so much easier to drive to Everett, Washington to get our English Pointer (Sadie who died 4 years ago) or to make the long drive to eastern Idaho to pick up Murphy just 3 years ago. This venture of adopting a rescue dog has just drained me.

I knew I wouldn’t have time to even look today: Arwen needed me to drive her around this morning and tonight is Javan’s first birthday party. So getting a dog today wasn’t even on my radar when I woke up this morning.

What was on my radar was that it wasn’t supposed to be a quiet Saturday morning: I had planned on having to take a dog for a walk early. I groaned and tried to bury my head in the pillow. Finally, I just told God that I forgave Him and He could forgive me for being such a pill, and I’d just get on with my day as best as I could. Somewhere, the perfect dog awaits.

At 8:30, I picked up the phone to call Arwen and let her know I was on the way. There was a voice mail message from the Dog Shelter that just asked me to call them. ??? It was left late yesterday afternoon. So I called. I called at 8:30, at 9, and at 9:30. And at 9:30, I got a live person.

The people who were supposed to pick the dog up today changed their minds. Did I still want him?She went on to tell me that this was the third hold on the dog that had been broken this week: mine and two others.

I leave in about half an hour to go finalize the adoption and pay for the dog.

He *is* coming home to live with us after all.

I think God had a plan all along and it worked out so the dog comes home on a weekend when we have time to bond & get him situated for during the week.