Update on the Pet Situation

I'm back! It was a wonderful holiday and so much fun and love was given and received. It was nice to see most of our family and spend a lot of quality time talking and playing games. We can talk about all of that later. Right now, here is an update on where we stand with the dog situation that I wrote about before Christmas.

Jeff and I tend to procrastinate, or at least it may look like procrastination from an outsider looking in. However, once a decision has been made we both go forward full force. On our way to Christmas at Jeff's family we stopped at a Golden Retriever Rescue and met a few dogs. We were able to see one dog in particular that we were interested in, Casey. Here is a picture of her. Casey is a young female, probably less than two years old, they think she was probably someone's pet but they never claimed her. She came in heart worm positive and is still receiving treatment. Casey is a wiggly girl who has a wonderful thick blond coat and is just happy to see people. She was great with the kids, and it was nice to see they weren't scared of her at all. Although they did learn quickly to stay away from the tail, it can be pretty weapon like when Casey gets excited.

The first think we have to do for the rescue group is address our fence. We have an electric fence that is broken, so the company is coming out to fix it this afternoon (although now it is snowing, not sure how that works). Then the rescue has to do a home visit and make sure we aren't running a puppy mill here. We have been through all of this before, it may seem crazy to non dog people, or even non rescue people. But these dogs have been through so much and the rescue group's objective is to find them a forever home where they will be indoors and part of the family. The group wants to find homes for these dogs, but their goal is to improve the situation of the dog and ensure a good fit. For instance, they would never give us a 90 lb boy who has so much energy and muscle and needs a five mile run every day. With a four year old and a three year old, it just doesn't make sense, and they understand that the likelihood of the dog and the family being happy depends on how well suited we are for each other, versus does the dog look cute online or whether or not we always wanted a boy, etc etc. Our wishes are important but not nearly as important as the needs of the dog. If only all decisions we made in life were so well thought through with an advocate on the other end.

So after today we should have a working fence, cross your fingers. And luckily the previous owner's left all of the collars for the device so we don't even need to purchase those. Then over the weekend we will head to the rescue again to get a home visit scheduled. I hope to meet Tia also while we are there this weekend. Here is her picture. My only concern is that we will fall in love with both and end up with two Goldens. (We do have two electric fence collars!)