Woah, that was intense.
I have just returned from a little field trip over to the County Animal Shelter.
I have been lurking on Petfinder.com for weeks and weeks and weeks, wondering if I might find a dog. It's taken me two years to get to the place where I can start thinking about another pet.
I decided that looking at pictures was just not cutting the mustard and it was time to go see some face to face canines.
My first clue that things might be a little hectic came when I couldn't find a parking place at the shelter. I went way down the road and parked. Hmmm, thought I. Maybe it's a special day and I didn't know?
Nope. Just your run of the mill day it turns out. Lots of people and kids and animals everywhere you look.
I was not prepared for what I encountered when I finally made my way through the maze of kennels. ( I brought my earplugs with me as I figured there would be a lot of barking. Turns out I was right)
So I walked down the middle of the first kennel and here are all these nice dogs looking at you in the most hopeful and pitiful way you can imagine. You can just SEE the thoughts going through their heads. "Hey! You! I KNOW you can get me out of here. I have a FEELING about it. Let's go NOW! What's your car look like? Never mind, I'll find it. Do you have a ball on you? Frisbee? I'm READY to fetch! Hey, wait, come back. WhaddidIsay? Awww, come on. Yo! Turn around! That dog over there has fleas, you don't want him. That guy slobbers. Old Frisky across the way likes to chew couches, I heard him talking about it in his sleep last night. I'M the dog for you. Pick me! Pick me!"
Now, just rewind that and repeat it 100 times. That's how many dogs they have there.
Oh my gosh. I almost ran out of the place. I wanted to let them all out in the yard to run around and do doggy things. Everybody needed a bath. I'm good at the bath thing.
Dogs are such social creatures. They love us. They just can't help themselves. It must be really hard for them to be in that place. But I know it's better than running loose around here. Too dang many cars.
After walking through the whole place, I concluded that about 80% of the dogs there were happy friendly critters that would most likely make fine pets. But there were 10% who were apathetic, and the last 10% were very wary characters. Three half grown cow dogs took top prize as "most likely to snap your hand off before you even know what has happened to you." They were huddled in a pile in the corner of their outside kennel eyeing everything with suspicion.
I didn't see any one dog that just looked like "the one" for us. But I have put my email address in for 3 breeds I'm interested in, and they are supposed to send me a notification if they get any of those in.
It was a little traumatic, but I'm glad I went. The shelter is very close to where we live, so I may start stopping by once a week or something. I don't have any idea what their turn over is there. But at least I'm looking.
It's a start.
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