Last Week Recap
Ok, now that things have calmed down, here's what was going on last week.
Last Monday (9/13) after my softball games (which we won both of, btw), Heather Marie and I took Magaidh for a walk around the block. On the way back, a cute little beagle-mix puppy followed us home. Since we're good, tenderhearted people (or try to be), we took him in for the night. We tried knocking on doors around where we found him, but it was already 11pm and nobody answered their doors. Glad it wasn't a real emergency! I know we're nightowls, but our neighborhood shuts down by 9pm. Sheesh.
So we put up some flyers for people to see on their way to work the next day and fed the poor little thing. He was probably 3 months old and in pretty decent shape overall, although he ate and drank anything we put in front of him the whole time he was here. Nobody called the next day, so after asking around at work and with friends to see if anyone wanted him, we tried to take him to the Springdale animal shelter. We hated to do it, but we were sure that a cute puppy had an excellent chance of adoption. They wouldn't take him, though, because we don't live in Springdale. Nevermind that we both work in Springdale, we do 90% of our shopping in Springdale, and you could throw a baseball into Springdale from our house.
Ditto Rogers and Fayetteville, both of which told us to go to Springdale. Lowell "animal control" amounts to two unsheltered pens in the vacant lot behind the police station, which act as holding pens until somebody can take the animals to the shelter in Siloam Springs (wtf?!), and we could not, in good conscience, consign him to that. After some begging, Springdale agreed to take him in three days. The reason was that they'd have to keep him that long before they could adopt him out (to give owners a chance to claim him), but they were afraid such a young puppy could get sick in the shelter. If we kept him for that period and left the signs up, then they could list us as the former owners and adopt him out immediately.
Fortunately, in the meantime, Heather Marie got in touch with Animal Haven Rescue in Fayetteville. They said they'd have space for him after some adoptees got picked up on Saturday. So Saturday afternoon while Heather was at ShimmyFest, I took him down to their adopt-a-dog day at Petsmart in Fayetteville, and left him with them. They were really nice. They'd already seen pictures of him, and said they were confident he'd find a good home quickly. I wasn't sure, though, until I saw everyone who walked by at Petsmart oooing and ahhhing over him. He's already on their website.
In the 5 days before then, though, I'd started getting attached to him, and I really wanted to cry when he left. We kind of wish we could've kept him, but we really don't have enough space in our house for two dogs. More importantly, we don't really have the time and attention a puppy needs and deserves. As I said when we got Magaidh, "It's hard not to fall in love with something that wants nothing more than to be with you every moment of the day." We hadn't named him because we knew if we did, giving him up would be even worse. They named him Roscoe. Good name for him. It fits.
So, what did I learn? Well, for one thing, worrying about something other than myself and my own day-to-day stress and crap was really good for me. The puppy wasn't completely housebroken, so he needed lots of supervision and care in addition to the normal puppy play and attention. I realized I'd been spending too much time worrying about myself and my own problems instead of just living. The experience also made me realize that I spend too much time on things that aren't really very important to me, and not enough on the things that are.
As an aside, while we were checking the classifieds for lost dog notices, Heather Marie noticed an ad the week before for four free beagle-bassett mix puppies. It ended the Saturday before we found the puppy, and a couple of days later another ad appeared that someone had found a beagle-bassett mix in NW Springdale with a collar and no tags, just like the puppy we found. What a coincidence.
So, that was my week. It broke my heart in some ways, but it was a good experience overall, and I don't regret it. So say a little prayer of thanks and hope for Roscoe for us.
UPDATE: As you can tell by clicking the link above, Roscoe is no longer listed on their website, so we're assuming he found a happy and loving home. Good for him. Godspeed, Roscoe!
Last Monday (9/13) after my softball games (which we won both of, btw), Heather Marie and I took Magaidh for a walk around the block. On the way back, a cute little beagle-mix puppy followed us home. Since we're good, tenderhearted people (or try to be), we took him in for the night. We tried knocking on doors around where we found him, but it was already 11pm and nobody answered their doors. Glad it wasn't a real emergency! I know we're nightowls, but our neighborhood shuts down by 9pm. Sheesh.
So we put up some flyers for people to see on their way to work the next day and fed the poor little thing. He was probably 3 months old and in pretty decent shape overall, although he ate and drank anything we put in front of him the whole time he was here. Nobody called the next day, so after asking around at work and with friends to see if anyone wanted him, we tried to take him to the Springdale animal shelter. We hated to do it, but we were sure that a cute puppy had an excellent chance of adoption. They wouldn't take him, though, because we don't live in Springdale. Nevermind that we both work in Springdale, we do 90% of our shopping in Springdale, and you could throw a baseball into Springdale from our house.
Ditto Rogers and Fayetteville, both of which told us to go to Springdale. Lowell "animal control" amounts to two unsheltered pens in the vacant lot behind the police station, which act as holding pens until somebody can take the animals to the shelter in Siloam Springs (wtf?!), and we could not, in good conscience, consign him to that. After some begging, Springdale agreed to take him in three days. The reason was that they'd have to keep him that long before they could adopt him out (to give owners a chance to claim him), but they were afraid such a young puppy could get sick in the shelter. If we kept him for that period and left the signs up, then they could list us as the former owners and adopt him out immediately.
Fortunately, in the meantime, Heather Marie got in touch with Animal Haven Rescue in Fayetteville. They said they'd have space for him after some adoptees got picked up on Saturday. So Saturday afternoon while Heather was at ShimmyFest, I took him down to their adopt-a-dog day at Petsmart in Fayetteville, and left him with them. They were really nice. They'd already seen pictures of him, and said they were confident he'd find a good home quickly. I wasn't sure, though, until I saw everyone who walked by at Petsmart oooing and ahhhing over him. He's already on their website.
In the 5 days before then, though, I'd started getting attached to him, and I really wanted to cry when he left. We kind of wish we could've kept him, but we really don't have enough space in our house for two dogs. More importantly, we don't really have the time and attention a puppy needs and deserves. As I said when we got Magaidh, "It's hard not to fall in love with something that wants nothing more than to be with you every moment of the day." We hadn't named him because we knew if we did, giving him up would be even worse. They named him Roscoe. Good name for him. It fits.
So, what did I learn? Well, for one thing, worrying about something other than myself and my own day-to-day stress and crap was really good for me. The puppy wasn't completely housebroken, so he needed lots of supervision and care in addition to the normal puppy play and attention. I realized I'd been spending too much time worrying about myself and my own problems instead of just living. The experience also made me realize that I spend too much time on things that aren't really very important to me, and not enough on the things that are.
As an aside, while we were checking the classifieds for lost dog notices, Heather Marie noticed an ad the week before for four free beagle-bassett mix puppies. It ended the Saturday before we found the puppy, and a couple of days later another ad appeared that someone had found a beagle-bassett mix in NW Springdale with a collar and no tags, just like the puppy we found. What a coincidence.
So, that was my week. It broke my heart in some ways, but it was a good experience overall, and I don't regret it. So say a little prayer of thanks and hope for Roscoe for us.
UPDATE: As you can tell by clicking the link above, Roscoe is no longer listed on their website, so we're assuming he found a happy and loving home. Good for him. Godspeed, Roscoe!
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