Dino Chronicles: Thankful for puppies and kitties

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Thankful for puppies and kitties

I would be remiss if I didn’t share how thankful I am for the namesake of this blog.

Dino the Wonder Dog came into our lives in April 2007. We had lost Pepper and Shadow just three months before and at the time said to ourselves, as many dog owners do, we won’t get another dog. Isn’t it nice to not be tied down and have to worry about someone being home to let the dog out? Isn’t it nice to not have another mouth to feed, another critter to run up vet bills, another responsibility?

But that April things weren’t going so hot for the family. We spent the weekend in the hubby’s hometown and when he went for a walk one morning, he stopped at the humane society just a few blocks away. They had a few mixed breed dogs up for adoption and had just been told they would be getting St Bernard mix puppies soon. Maybe we wanted a puppy instead? (Or a pony, do you mean?)

One dog caught the hubby’s eye. They thought he was part Australian shepherd and was about six months old. He’d been abandoned with several other dogs, perhaps his brothers and sisters, and all of them had found homes. But no one had taken an interest in this dog for some reason, and one of the boys who volunteered there had nicknamed him Demon, because he was so wild.

The hubby walked back to the house and told me about the dog, said that we could return to the shelter later that afternoon if I wanted to see what they had. It was close to our daughter’s birthday, and she had been having a rough year. Maybe we should get her a dog.

My living room, the morning after Dino's first night with us.
He spent that first night in his kennel and did this in the hour
after we let him out and went back to bed.

We drove to the shelter that afternoon, and even though we looked at the other dogs, I knew this one was the one. Yes, he was a little wild, but that was just the pent-up energy from spending too many hours in a cage in a cement building. I wanted to take him home right then.

We had to fill out an application and they wanted to check our references. They would call us once all the paperwork was in order and we could pick him up then. It was a long weekend. I was off of work that week and willing to drive over to get him as soon as I got the call on Monday.

Since we already had cats with the names Fred, Pebbles, and Bam-Bam, it seemed we could stick with the Flintstone’s theme and name the new dog Dino.

I’ve been thankful for him ever since (ok, except maybe that first morning).

Let me just sneak the cats in here too, coz even though the brains in cats’ heads function on a totally different level from a dog’s, I still have to respect who they are. Coz if I don’t, they will retaliate.

Here are the cats who have shared my adult life with me:

Keisha – October 1986 to February 2005