Rejected

I know at some point I'll get another dog. I've been tentatively planning to wait until after Lucy is gone, but I'm also open to adopting another dog sooner if the perfect match comes along.

A number of years ago Rvan decided that he was ready to settle down with someone, and embarked on a series of legendary, disastrous dates.

Without further ado, here are the six ways my attempt to adopt a dog last weekend was like one of Rvan’s bad dates:

We met online:

In this case it was a craigslist ad that said that the dog was at a shelter and had a limited amount of time before being put to sleep. The dog in question, Katy, met both of my requirements: 1) Good with other dogs, and 2) Good with cats. That’s it. That’s the list.

The craziness began before the first meeting:

I emailed the person who wrote the ad and told her about my situation. After three or four exchanges, I finally figured out that the woman didn’t work at the shelter (which was not obvious from the ad), but that she’s been trying to resolve an animal problem at a trailer park, and she was the one that brought the dog to the shelter in the first place. She mentioned that she was having a hard time getting the dog back out of the shelter, but didn’t say why. I assumed it was some sort of paperwork problem.

We finally set up a meeting on Saturday afternoon, which would give her time to get the dog after the SPCA opened at 11am and to run some unspecified errands. I gave her my cell phone number so she could call me half an hour before we were supposed to meet on Saturday.

At 6:30 on Friday night she sends me email complaining that I didn’t answer my cell phone when she called. This is my first concrete sign that she may not be dealing with a full deck. I considered stopping the whole thing at that point, but I figured that I could deal with a little craziness since I’d only have to deal with her once.

(The one that got away.)

Meeting in a public place:

Since the dog was in Sacramento, I agreed to meet the rescue person at a park downtown, a 30 minute drive from my house. I'd bring Lucy along, and that way the dogs would be able to meet in a neutral place.

It was a typical city park complete with sleeping homeless person. Lucy was acting like an idiot and barking nonstop. (She learned this lovely behavior from people at the dog park petting her every time she barked.) The other dog, Katy, was pretty calm and didn’t really seem to care about much.

This was when I found out that the reason the crazy woman was having a problem getting Katy back from the SPCA was that Katy failed the temperament test. Apparently she snapped at someone when they hugged her. I’ve known enough nice dogs that have failed shelter temperament tests to not be overly concerned about this (especially since Katy let me do everything to her at the park), but I was a little annoyed that this was the first time I was getting this information.

Oh, by the way, I’m seeing other people:

The first person I talked to when Lucy and I got to the park was the other person who was there to see Katy. It was news to me that anyone else had replied to the ad. Oh, and there was another person that was supposed to meet the dog that evening.

I really like you but…

After a while at the dog park, the crazy woman offered to see how Katy did with my cats since any sign of aggression would be a complete deal breaker. So we drove back to Woodland. The good news was that Katy didn’t even seem to notice the cats at all. The bad news was that Lucy got completely bent out of shape about having another dog in the house. (I think she would have gotten over that fairly quickly.)

It became fairly obvious that a visit to the home had always been an adoption requirement. That’s pretty common, and I didn’t have a problem with it, but a) you really need to tell someone about it beforehand if that's the case, and b) why make me drive out to Sacramento if we’re both going to have to drive back to Woodland?

Anyhow, the crazy person said she liked me, but didn’t like the sagging fence between my house and the house next door. I can understand her concern, but the neighbor’s yard is otherwise secure, and dogs tend not to leave back yards unless they are left alone out there. I don’t leave my dog outside when I leave.

I’ll call you:

The crazy woman wanted to check out the situation at the other place, but promised to call me and let me know either way. It’s been four days. I think I’ll just assume that Katy found another home.


On the positive side, even Rvan eventually found someone...