A New Friend

Yesterday Master picked me up from work. We had some errands to run, so I was glad that it was my half day. We went to the bank and then to the landlord's office and dropped off our rent check.

I have to say that I don't think I'll be bitching about our apartment complex again any time soon. Earlier that day I had called and asked for the manager. She got on the phone with me and I explained that Ghost was unfortunately no longer with us. She offered her condolences, which was appreciated. Most landlords just don't give a shit.

I also told her that we were probably going to be looking into getting another dog, but that I just didn't know when. She said that wasn't a problem and said that as long as it wasn't what are typically considered "aggressive breeds", or like something the size of a Saint Bernard. No problem there. Later when we went there to drop off the rent check she handed me a new pet agreement to fill out and send in once we had chosen an animal. She had also given me her personal cell phone number in case the humane society needed to talk to the management of our apartments. She is awesome.

Once I got back to the car, Master asked me if I wanted to go look at the humane society. (We like to support our local shelters. We love mutts, and those animals truly need loving homes.)

This was in no way meant to disrespect Ghost in any way, shape or form. He was our pack member for many years, and he will never be forgotten, and there simply is no replacing him. In fact I don't believe there is ever "replacing" an animal. There is simply opening your home and your heart to save another animal, and give him or her a chance at a happy fulfilling life.

I know some people may believe this to be a bit quick. But quite honestly, we need animals with us. We just do.

So we went to the local shelter. We looked around, and we had gone there just to look and if a dog caught our eye (and our heart) we would consider it.

Well, we found two possible candidates to be our pup. Our "first choice" was already being looked at by another couple shortly after we had filled out our paperwork.

We were a bit saddened at first, and figured that he had probably found his home. So we asked to see our "second choice". This dog was very hyper. And he nipped a lot. I still have marks on my arms from him. He was sweet, and was honestly just trying to play. But I could tell he wanted to be the pack leader. This dog was an alpha, or at least wanted to be.

Where as there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, those types of dogs I have a hard time with until they are properly trained. My height becomes a problem, because they figure if they stand up they can look me in the eye so what the hell am I going to do? They don't see me as a threat. Also, since I submit to Master's will the dog would have picked up on that eventually and also tried to boss me around. Not good. Master of course would have no problem, but even with how "alpha" Master is, this dog was giving him issues and already challenging him constantly. We spent a good half hour with this particular dog.

Also, I didn't think he would adapt well to apartment living. Even though we have a nice sized 2 bedroom first floor apartment, we don't have a yard he could have ran in. And he would need that, in my opinion.

So while he was a very cute and sweet dog, I was second guessing the possibility of taking him home with us. I didn't want to take him home only to have to send him back. That's not fair to the animal at all.

So something clicked in my brain. I asked the adoption counselor who was assisting us if our "first choice" had in fact been adopted. She asked us to wait a moment and put the pup we were playing with back in his room. She checked it out, and it turns out that the couple who had been looking at him had decided he wasn't the right dog for them.

So we asked to see him.

We stayed in the "meet and greet" room and she let him in. The first thing this dog did was run up to Master and as Master was kneeling down on the ground, he started licking His face. Then he ran up to me and started licking my hands and leaning against me for pets. He ran in between us both. This was no one person animal. He was a pack animal and just the way he was moving, he is not an alpha at all. I would say he's a beta.

So I looked at Master, He looked at me, smiled, nodded His head, and I turned my head to the adoption counselor and said, "This may seem kind of quick, but we would really like to start the adoption process for this guy." She smiled and said, "I think he's a great fit for you two."

So she put him back in his room, put up a sign saying he had found his forever home, and walked us back out into the reception area. We had already completed our adoption paperwork (all that remained to be filled in was the dog's name since we had not decided when we filled it out) so she took us into the store that they have on premises. We bought a leash, two toys, a magnet to go on our car, and of course we paid the adoption fee.

Once all that was done we went into a different room where we received a lot of paperwork on him. We had to sign a contact regarding a few things, but nothing that we didn't expect.

We received a free first examination coupon at a vet that agreed to take it. Thankfully our vet does. We also got two bags of treats and a small bag of food that they had been feeding him. It's Science Diet Advanced Fitness. He also came with a collar and 30 days worth of free pet health insurance.

His name is Radar. He is 1 year old and is, according to the paper work, an Australian Cattle Dog mix. We have no idea what he's mixed with. But he's fucking adorable.

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As you can plainly see. He is still teething, so we bought him a lot of chew toys and tug of war toys to help with that. And yes, that was my slave mat he's laying on. Although he is treating it like his dog bed. But as Master stated, we had thought about getting rid of my slave mat anyway and just having me be on the couch instead since it's just not as comfortable as it once was.

Radar was a stray, and was picked up by animal control and brought to the animal shelter, and now he's with us.

He didn't want to get in the car at first. Master had to pick him up and put him in the backseat with me. But once he was inside it he was fine.

Since neither of us had honestly been expecting to find a dog that day, we had no other supplies at home. (No way were we going to use Ghost's belongings. Those were his.)

So Master stayed at home with Radar. We put out some regular bowls with food and water in it, and then I ran out to the pet store. I picked up a new collar (the one he had on was almost to tight.. it was time to upgrade), a store and feed dog bowl set (it's so handy by the way), some more treats, a big bag of the Science Diet food he is used to, a place mat for the store and feed set, and an ID tag with his name our our contact info on it. Thankfully he is already micro chipped and registered to us, thanks to the humane society, but I refuse to let a dog of mine walk around without an ID tag.

This morning we came out to the living room and he had destroyed a couple things that we had left on the floor. It was mainly papers (that we didn't need thankfully). Honestly we kind of expected something to happen since we was left to his own devices for the first time in a new environment, and he didn't have a lot to chew on otherwise. Like I said he's teething pretty bad. It could have been a lot worse.

So today we went back to the pet store, only this time we brought Radar with us since they allow dogs in there. We got some training treats. He only knows sit right now. We also bought more teething toys.

We took him for a walk. He handles pretty good on a leash, but needs to learn some manners still. We're thinking about signing him up for a manners classes.

We have high hopes for Radar and are glad that we brought him home.