New Family Member

We've been talking about getting a dog since we decided to buy Slim's Grotto. We've gone back and forth about what general breed to get.

I think Laura and I mostly agree that AKC "standards" are generally awful because of all the inbreeding and the drive to focus on appearance. I think there are only 2 breeds that haven't been ruined by this: greyhounds and the police version of German shepherds.

Beyond that, it's my opinion that your best bet for a great dog is a mutt that you pick up from a shelter.

I've already been through the arguments about the pros and cons of a "pure-bred" dog with papers. I get the point behind the idea that you can do a lot about designing a puppy's temperament and adult size by carefully selecting a parent.

Personally, I think the problems that tend to come with the narrow breeding lines outweigh any of those benefits. This is why I strongly prefer mutts.

Laura organized an open house sort of thing today where she baked about 4 tons of cookies and invited all our neighbors over to meet us. One of them talked about their dog, which came from the pound. They're sure it has some shar-pei, because of the tiny little ears. They've been told it's part chow, because it has a black tongue. Other than that, my guess is as good as theirs. And I've never even seen the thing.

But, still. There are some basic behaviors and traits that tend to go along with different breeds. Rotts are going to be protective, golden retrievers tend to be super-friendly, Basset hounds are clowns, chihuahuas are annoying and yappy. When you mix the breeds, you get a mix of the stereotypes.

That's why most insurance companies won't cover pit bull mixes. It's neither right nor fair, but that's the current reality.

Anyway. Laura really loves sight hounds, and would love to adopt another greyhound. I'd like a dog that's sturdy enough to tromp through the woods with us without breaking a leg, though everything I've heard about greyhounds tells me I'd love to have one.

This weekend, PetCo teamed up with the Austin shelters to pay for all the adoptions. We aren't really settled in enough yet to add a dog to the mix. But there's also the "you'll never really be ready" factor, and we both agree that every little boy needs a dog.

A decent-size dog. Because little dogs suck.

So we started looking last night, just in case we ran across a free one we couldn't pass up.

Austin Pets Alive is pretty much *the* charity for this sort of thing. At least around here. It's a no-kill shelter (or maybe an entire family of them?) that's just totally awesome.

So we checked out their website. It has some checkboxes you can use to narrow down the selection (which is huge). The main filters that mattered to us are about how friendly they are with cats, children, and their energy level.

So I tried the kid filter at the "might be OK, but we either don't have any experience or the reviews have been mixed" level. That narrowed the hundreds of options down to around 30.

The few that weren't pit bull mixes were chihuahuas. I think there were 2 that might have possibly worked, but neither appealed to either of us.

I was ready to call it quits there, but Laura's insistent about finding ways to make her life more difficult.

So we also checked out the Austin Humane Society. Which had a catahoula (mix?) that sounded promising. I can't find the ad for her now, but the part we both liked was a recommendation about a "low-stress" household.

I've been around catahoulas before, and I know they're awesome. Although they can take a lot of work that we don't have the time/energy for.

But Laura likes to be thorough, so she also had me look at the third shelter ring in the area. I don't remember its name now, though it would be easy enough to look up.

They had a dog that sounded awesome to me, in theory. It's a Belgian/Australian shepherd. It also sounds like even more exhaustion that neither of us can afford. Really, greyhounds are more our speed.

We drove into Cedar Park this morning for...something. Breakfast, maybe? I wanted to just go on from there to hit at least one of those shelters.

But Laura's wiser than I. We only had about 1 hour and 40 minutes before we started handing out cookies. And Cedar Park is barely the first leg into Austin proper. That's a totally different beast than my daily commute to the far northern outskirts.

Besides, that shelter's open until 7:00 pm, 7 days a week.

So we went back home and shared cookies with some of our neighbors.

Somewhere in here, we decided to only plan on looking at the catahoula. She was the most likely choice by far, and the other option was another 20 minutes away.

After the clock ran out on that, and Laura had mostly cleaned up (we all know by now that I wasn't going to help with that, right?), she had the bright idea to call and ask about whether the dog was still available.

She got an answering machine promising to get back with an answer in 24 hours.

So we loaded into the car with the ominous understanding that Mal would take a post-4:00 pm nap, which meant that he was going to be awake until the wee hours of the morning. And no guarantee about what we'd find on the other end. Laura pronounced (shortly after Mal fell asleep) that she'd be gone before we arrived; I thought about it and decided I'd be OK with this outcome.

He was dead asleep by the time we arrived. So I rushed in to ask someone whether she was still there/available.

The place was a madhouse. Which I should have expected by the fact that the parking lot was nearly full (Laura thought she was going to have to circle the block until a spot opened up).

I wound up wandering back around to her kennel while I was searching for someone to ask about her.

She was sleeping contentedly amidst the chaos.

So I threaded my way back through the crowd and told Laura to come on in. Then I wavered a bit over pulling Mal out of his car seat. I've never been able to do this before while he was asleep, without waking him up.

In my head, I kept hearing Laura's advice about it: "Pick him up like you love him."

While I was still trying to gear myself up for it mentally, she circled around and asked "Really?!" So I did it.

He woke up, very briefly. Then I got the joy of his utter surrender in my arms.

For a few fleeting moments.

Then we entered the mayhem, and that woke him up.

I threaded us through the crowds, to Shelby's cage. Where a couple (for whom I held the doors earlier! How *dare* they?!) were taking a serious look.

Laura's reaction was almost instant. Here we were, in the midst of utter chaos, with crowds oogling, dogs barking, and this one was taking a nap. (I don't think it's because she was just calm and relaxed: I think she was just overwhelmed). Laura declared "Oh, yeah. That's the dog for us."

I'm not used to the high-stakes fast-paced arena of free animal shelters. Laura's wiser. She grabbed the name tag and headed to the front desk.

I stayed behind, still holding Mal. Who was steadily waking up and freaking out because of all the barking.

I carried him back out of the crowded kennel (to the slightly less crowded cat area), until he demanded to be put down. He wandered back and forth for a bit, covering his ears, looking for Laura.

It took us three trips for me to convince him that she was just a little bit further.

By the time we finally reached her, she'd made it to the front of the line and was receiving "counseling" about the dog and our future [potential] relationship. The part I caught basically amounted to:

1. She's pretty obsessive about her food. Not aggressive, or growling, or anything like that. Just...we have a warning flag on her about anyone under the age of 5, just in case. As long as you lock her in the bathroom while she eats, and keep Mal well away for a while, it should all be fine.
2. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body.
3. Well, we haven't had her long enough to expose her to cats. We have a pamphlet with advice about introducing them.

That seemed pretty reasonable. We decided to wake her up so we could meet her.

I thought the meeting was so-so. If it had just been me, I probably would have written her off. We asked Mal a couple of times whether he wanted her to come home with us. His answer was a pretty emphatic "No, I don't!"

But Laura, who'd complained the entire drive out, thought she was sweet.

And I'd just instinctively sat on the floor right next to her because she felt safe. It was a really stupid thing to do with a strange dog who's experiencing a ton of stress. But she just gives off this mellow hippy vibe.

So we decided to adopt her.

Despite Mal's objections. I'm sure he'll thank us later. (So will D...who couldn't be bothered to wake up when Laura tried to discuss it).

I got in line for it this time, while Mal demanded nursing time (which he got, of course). We got to the shelter rep, and everything looked like it was going to collapse around us.

The dog had a "no kids under 5" flag on her file. We couldn't remember who we'd talked to initially who thought we could deal with the feeding issues by just keeping them apart during feeding time.

The rep agreed to ask her manager, but she didn't think it would work out.

It did. The manager was the one who'd done our initial screening. I got a couple of apologies: the rep thought I was asking for counseling before I met the dog instead of "OK, we've met, and I want to adopt her."

So I filled out the paperwork where I promised to be a responsible pet owner (Laura pointed out that this is more than hospitals require from parents with new-born babies), and we were off.

Well, almost.

We'd agreed before-hand that any new dog was going to ride in the passenger seat for this first trip. Because we didn't want to risk the whole "stress-craziness" factor with it alone in the back seat with Mal.

I didn't think it was an issue with this dog. Laura felt like she was too big to fit in the front seat. So, despite Mal's objections, she rode with him in the back.

She's a great passenger. We'd get to cruising speed, and she'd relax. Then we'd slow down, and she'd pop her head up to check out what's going on. Mal giggled insanely when he gathered the courage to actually touch her.

Eventually, we reached home, and took her to check out the back yard.

She really didn't care. She wanted inside the house.

This was the scary part for me.

My last dog was a cat killer. And we didn't have any idea what to expect with this one.

What we got was probably the best-case scenario, at least at first: she totally ignored the cats while they hissed and spat. She just wanted to form a basic "where is what?" picture.

Everything went fine until she followed Laura and Mal into Mal's room and settled down with them to read a book.

At this point, Rudy was stupid enough to actually attack.

He ran up and clawed her butt. I thought about kicking him just hard enough to keep him out of the way. It happened so quickly that I don't understand why I didn't.

He was serious enough about the whole thing that his claws punctured Laura. I don't think think he actually injured Shelby, but she acted as though she'd been totally betrayed by a friend.

Which is an awesome sign. I'm sure now that she was raised with cats.

But I'm very sad that Rudy kicked off his first impression this way.

Shortly after this, Laura took some personal time to drive into town and spend money on things like a food/water dish for the dog, and a "stuffy" for the dog (it's a 2-legged giraffe that doesn't have any stuffing to rip out, but it does have a squeaker, which Shelby loves). And a collar/leash for this dog.

I'm pretty worried how I'll be able to take care of the dog without her help.

While she was gone, Shelby hung out at the back gate, trying to...whatever it is that dogs do when they get free.

I think she's planning to find her real master.

Actually, as I write this, she's having some really stressful dreams. I suppose those might be about the shelter, but I feel like she's freaking out about not being where she's supposed to be and not doing what she's been raised to do.

Whatever that is. I really hope they settle down.