Anyway, the big news is.... we have a new family member by the name of "Trapper." Here is the back story:
A couple of weeks ago, our son and his girlfriend bought an AKC registered Boxer named Bowzer. My wife and I have been talking about when we would get another dog after our Jenny had to be put to sleep, and we hadn't intended on getting one right away because we are still mourning Jenny. But this little guy is so cute and adorable, and the breeder still had two pups of the same age left for sale, so on Saturday we drove down to his house in Irving to look them over.
They were cute and adorable.....and they also pooped and piddled whereever they wanted to, and tried to eat every little piece of anything they could find on the floor, and generally ran riot all over the place. Now the momma dog was another story entirely. She was sweet, obedient, rational (in a doggie way), and most importantly, housebroken.
We told the breeder we would think about it and call him back today to let him know what we had decided. On the way home, I was silently praying to God to give us a good dog, the right dog, to fill the Jenny-shaped hole in our hearts. "Out of the blue," my wife said, "they have pet adoptions in front of the PetsMart on saturdays." That got my attention, and so we agreed to stop by there on the way home.
So, we got there, and as we browsed through all the dogs that were available, we really didn't see one that stood out for us. Then we got to the very last cage, and there he was. He was sitting in the back of his cage. He looked fairly content. He was calm, and he was pretty much ignoring all the fuss that was going on around him. He didn't bark. He wasn't scared. And he couldn't care less about being in a cage. It was a pretty hot day, and he had tried to swim in his water bowl, so he was a bit soggy in places, but he had a calm bearing. And when called forward to see him better, he came forward willingly, with interest.
He is a year and a half old, house trained, kennel trained, etc. He's a Boxer/Lab/Cattle Dog mix—a "Designer Heinz," as his foster mom put it. We haven't had him to the vet yet, but I'm guessing his weight in the 60 lbs range. He's a light tan, a shade lighter than Jenny was. And, he took to us like a fish out of water. It was like he had been waiting for us to come along. We were instantly smitten, and even my wife, who was a bit hesitant in this process because the pain of Jenny's loss is still fresh, was captivated by Trapper. We had no choice but to adopt him.
He had been rescued out of a shelter up in McKinney when he was about 5 months old, and his foster mom had kept him for the past year. She is deaf, and the rescue club originally gave him to her thinking that he might make a good "companion" dog for someone with special needs, but his personality is just on the timid side—not what you would call skittish, but just not bold enough to be a good candidate for that kind of training—and so the rescue club decided to adopt him out.
He has been a balm in Gilead to us. We loved Jenny with all of our hearts, but she was a difficult dog. Despite our best efforts, she never did get socialized to other dogs because the pit bull in her made her very aggressive toward dogs—even our other dog Buster while he had him. She was mistrustful and surly around other people until she got to know them really well. Early in her life she was tremendously destructive. We came close to giving her back to the Humane Society several times after we got her because of her destructiveness. In her first week in our home, among other things, she ate my only pair of (very expensive) reading glasses. The only reason we never turned her back in was that we were her second adoption from there. She had been abused, and her first adoptive home had giver her back. I couldn't live with the thought that she would probably be put down if we gave her back. It wasn't until the last year or two of her nearly 16 years that she started to mellow out to strangers. I believe that the good Lord gave her to us to teach us a lesson in patience and in how to love the hard to love. I'm just grateful that her last years with us were good years, both for her and for us, and that made it all worth it.
In contrast, Trapper is very calm, sweet, affectionate without being pushy. He's a 60 lb. cuddler. Although a little tentative around the house and yard the first two days, he is settling nicely. From day one he jumped up on the bed with us at night and curled up down by our feet. He smells good. He has a soft coat. He loves going out and about in the car, and he is very nice to strangers. He is playful and will get down and roll around on the floor with you. And when we're on the couch watching TV, he gets up between us and lays his head on our laps and falls instantly asleep. After the frenetic experience of being Jenny's humans, having Trapper around is a healing experience. We couldn't be more pleased with him.
Here is a picture of him:
he is a good looking dog. Glad you and The Annoyed Woman found a dog that fits.
