A Dog For Your Heart To Love * Spotlight My Health

MY BUDDY AND MY HEART

Between two and three years ago, I decided it was time for a dog. A dog for your heart to love, kinda dog. Ya know what I mean?

We hadn’t had one for a number of years and I just felt like it was time. Once my other three family members were in agreement, I went on the hunt at several animal rescue sites and shelters. Would I find a dog that talked to my heart?

I have to admit, my husband wasn’t thrilled, but he went along. I think he was concerned that I’d come home with this really big dog and how that would affect our lifestyle. Quite frequently we will take off on the spur of the moment for the weekend.

We weren’t being picky with the type of dog, but I had agreed on a small, 20ish lbs. or so dog, so that we could take her (we decided we wanted a female) with us when we went visiting relatives or friends. Smaller just fits into our lifestyle better.

After filling out numerous applications and showing interest in several dogs, at different rescue sites, we still didn’t have a dog. Several weeks passed and then over a month. I was surprised—how long should it take to find a dog. Someone else get the dog we chose, before us or we weren’t a good fit because we also have a cat.

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I finally went to a Pet Smart on a Saturday morning that they have rescue dogs available for homing. I did find a cute, little brown mutt that I spent about an hour with while in the store.

She listened to commands, seemed friendly, wasn’t too big, and didn’t act crazy. I decided to take her. I was, pretty happy with my decision. She wasn’t afraid during the car ride; another test passed.

I got her home and took her into the house where she met my daughter. Friendly greetings all around. Then my husband walked into the room and over to her to say Hi and all hell broke loose. To say she went crazy would be an understatement. She did not let my husband anywhere near her and she meant business and quite loudly let us know he wasn’t going to touch her.

I finally got her calmed down and she was OK as long as hubby didn’t come into the room. We thought that she would get used to him, but when our son came home, holly hell started again. She wanted to tear his arm up when he bent down to pet her. I didn’t like seeing her so upset, but we thought we’d give her a few days to get used to a new home and things should be OK.

Well, that didn’t happen, the week was almost up and nothing had changed. She was calm, cool and collected until my husband or son walked into the room she was in. Then she turned into a terror of attack.

Family Decision Time

We all had a family chat to decide what to do. Should we give her more time to get used to the two guys or should we take her back to Pet Smart. Their policy was that I had a week to change my mind about keeping the dog. It was unanimous; I was going to take this little dog back and hope she found another good home.

Hubby went with me this time and we were told when we took Sandy (dog’s name) back that we were not the only ones to bring her back for the same reason. I felt bad for her. And unfortunately, we didn’t find another dog to take home that day. But we hung around to make sure Sandy was OK and she got lucky. She went home with two women that had no men in the home. I was glad about that but sad that we had come up empty handed again.

It wasn’t too long after getting home that the phone rang for my son. It was a friend of his, whose girlfriend had a small dog. Her landlord was not letting her keep the dog so they were trying to find a home for the little guy.

I have to tell you, this is the same dog that my son had watched several weeks ago while his friend and girlfriend were out of town. The little guy had stolen our hearts that weekend.

We had told the owner that we would take him off her hands anytime if a situation ever arose that she couldn’t keep him.

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REALLY? WERE WE JUST OFFERED THE DOG WE REALLY WANTED?

Now after getting home from dropping off one dog, the dog we already thought was great, was falling into our laps. “Hell yeah, when?”, was all we asked.

We could not have been happier. Our Bear came into our lives a few hours after that phone call. His owner had actually named him Grayson, but when we were told everyone called him Bear-well, that just fit. The humor of his name strikes my funny bone on occasion and I chuckle. This 18 lb. ball of white fur is not what people expect to see when we talk about our Bear.

He has turned out to be such a good humored dog, that we say he has spoiled us for other dogs. He has quite a stubborn streak, which fits right in with our family. Still, for the most part he just does what we do and seems quite content. As we are.

AN ARROW STRAIGHT TO THE HEART

Bear has found a way into my heart that I know no other dog ever will again. When I come home after a frustrating day at work, he greets me at the door. Everything melts away and I have a big smile in my heart again. I don’t know how else to explain the joy he gives my soul. I truly believe this is why God has given us pets. When we find just the right one, we know it deep down and that we have been given a rare gift.

That’s what my Bear is to me-a rare gift that I’m very grateful for.

Do you have a pet or had one that you felt this kind of special connection with? Drop me a line or two and let me know what type of special pet you have/had and their name.