The Newest Member of the Family

It’s been a month since we said good-bye to Stormy, but I had the feeling even that day that she wanted us to pass on the love she gave us, pass it on to another dog. Fred and Josh didn’t want another dog, didn’t want to go through that hell again, but the house felt so EMPTY without a dog, even with *cough* five *cough* cats. I was the one whose routine had changed the most, who missed the companionship. So I started looking.

I knew about every animal on the Humane Society’s website. A puppy would be fun, but a lot of work and a lot of energy. I wanted someone settled, like Stormy had been. I saw a girl there who had been in the shelter since July of last year, but when I went to meet her, she didn’t want much to do with me. Polka, however, looked right into my eyes and essentially said, “I’m your dog.”

Fred came to meet her, and she liked him, a lot. But we weren’t sure if we were ready.

The next day I went to the Animal Defense League. I walked a couple of dogs, but couldn’t decide. They were both MUCH younger than Polka, who is 8. I went back on Friday to see her again, and got her story from Amber, one of the staff. She’d come into the shelter with what they thought was mange, all bloated, a stray. They treated her, and she was given to an older couple. After 7 months, they brought her back THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. Again, she was almost bald, and they called her “Stinky Polka” because she smelled so bad. They discovered the problem was her thyroid, so she’ll be on thyroid medicine the rest of her life. When I called Fred to pass on this info, he wanted me to check into the cost of medicine. Plus, we were out of town Saturday and didn’t want to leave her that long.

So we went back Sunday as soon as they opened. My other visits hadn’t been documented, so they wanted me to spend 20 minutes with her. By the time my time was done, 4 families were in front of us! THEN they wanted to do a cat test to make sure she would get along with mine. (She was so chill, it was funny.) THEN they forgot to get her medicine. THREE HOURS, we were there before we could take her home. But she was one happy dog.

She’s been home 6 hours, claimed her bed (Stormy would never use it), met the cats (who fled) and is currently sleeping on the couch.