New family additions (of the canine variety)

Back in February I posted about my beloved black Lab and how, at age 13, she had to be euthanized due to kidney failure and other "old age" problems. Although at the time I said I would never get another dog, it's been five months... and I changed my mind.

We still have our 10-year-old Italian Greyhound but he has always been more my husband and son's dog. Our Lab was the one I bonded with, I took her everywhere with me.


And so I started searching online at various rescue groups and classified ads to see if I can find another dog that would fit our life. I wanted either a Lab or a golden retriever, it had to be a female, I didn't want a puppy, and I hoped to find one that was already spayed (to save money). I found the beautiful girl in the photos above on Craig's List.

Her family was great. The dog, Bailey, loves people and is very sweet. Her family asked a lot of questions and wanted to meet me before they let her go. She was obviously very loved, but she had started jumping their fence and they were scared she would be hit by a car. Since I have a 6-foot privacy fence, it is less likely she could jump it, and we wanted her to be an indoor dog, anyway. I gave them $50 for a "rehoming" fee, since they had just had her spayed weeks earlier.



A day or two before we picked up Bailey (wow, it seems like much longer than that), I noticed another ad on Craig's List. It basically said they had a female boxer/Lab mix that they didn't want anymore. It further stated that they would be taking the dog to the pound on Friday if nobody picked her up. Our local pound kills a average of 88 dogs and cats per week via a gas chamber, and I just kept thinking about the dog's sad eyes in the photo in the Craig's List ad. The photo above is the one that was posted.

I explained the situation to Hubby, who was as appalled as I. On Friday, I reluctantly e-mailed the owners and asked if they had found a home for the dog. They had not. I asked if she was spayed or had received any vet care. She had not. I said I would take her. I had no idea if I was going to keep her or try and find a home for her, but I knew I couldn't let her be killed. The owners didn't ask me any questions, they just told me to meet them at a nearby gas station.

When we met, Hubby and I were handed a very scared medium-sized dog. We had about a 2-minute conversation with the man that included us asking the dog's name. Just prior to leaving, the owner threw something else out. "Oh yeah, she's in heat right now," he said. Well, that's just great, I thought.

We took the dog home and renamed her Gracie. Then I immediately had to leave and go pick up Bailey. So here we were, with two new dogs - one of whom could or could not have anything from heartworms to Lyme disease. Lyme disease? Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever? Yep, we pulled 36 ticks off Gracie, and I'm sure we may have missed a couple.


That's Gracie, above, on our back deck. Gracie loves playing with the other dogs, but she cowers whenever an adult goes to pet her. She also freaks out at almost any strange noise, from the sound of a computer starting up to the sound of someone bumping into something.

Gracie is staying outside, at least until we hear what the vet has to say at her appointment on Friday. Meanwhile, Bailey is doing great. She keeps me up at night because she doesn't like to stay by herself, and if you leave her alone too long she chews stuff up (she's only a year old). But she is intelligent and well adjusted, and loves playing with the other dogs. She is the queen of the new pack, and thus needs some serious training. But I have already started and she is taking to it well.

Our senior citizen dog, Leo, has mixed feelings. He loves playing with the new girls, but he is old and also likes to sleep a lot. He has barked at Bailey a couple of times when she didn't get the hint that he didn't want to play anymore.

And so, we now have three dogs. We've never had that many before... you may need to pray for us.