Before I adopted Lucy - the week before jitters

The week before I adopted Lucy, she, well, "Kola" was all I could think about. Here is the doggie journal entry that I wrote at the time:

Today: Wednesday April 9th 2008:

This is the last day before I am "with dog", so to speak. I know logically that adopting a dog is nothing like adopting a child, but emotionally I am so excited and anxious about it that it feels somewhat similar.

I feel that tommorrow at noon, my entire schedule and lifestyle will change dramatically. I bet that's how an adoptive mom or expectant mom feels about the delivery day.

All week, I have been toying with names. Monday, after a sleepless night freeting over whether to adopt "Kola" or not, I decided I _had_ to. Monday at 11 is when the shelter opened, but I had an 11 am customer visit. During that meeting, as our engineer gave a technical presentation, everytime he said something I somehow managed to link it to dogs. For example, "this can be used to fetch the data from the server." My mind mangled that phrase into "the dog could fetch the data, or paper." It went on like that for an hour. My mind struggled to concentrate but all I could do was imagine some happy go lucky couple visiting the shelter and choosing to adopt "my" dog Kola. At noon, I was praying we'd wrap up the meeting. I rushed back to my office and dialed the shelter. "This is it," I thought. The line was busy. I hung up and redailed. I did it again and again and again. I couldn't believe my luck . The line was endlessly busy. This was a snafu even my worried mind hadn't imagined. I dialed with my cell phone, as if that would matter. But suddenly I heard, "hello" and I felt a huge sigh of relief. Not only did I pay the $15 adoption reservation fee, I paid the entire $112 adoption fee. I didn't want to take any chances. I asked to pick her up Thursday at 11am. The lady seemed confused on the phone if Kola were spayed or not. I assured her that I saw the scar and that she had been. It reminded me of talking to hospital staff when they lost my father in the recovery room for half an hour. Anyhow, she was able to finally find the right chart and yes, she was spayed. So, yes, I could pick her up Thursday. She needed to have one more vet check there too.

When I hung up the phone, I literally jumped up and down in my office like a little girl! I went out to lunch by myself and called my sister and my mom and gushed about how excited I was. My family is one of dog lovers so they shared my joy.

My sister wanted me to name the dog "Lorelei", my mother wanted me to name the dog "Kella" but then changed her mind to support "Lorelei". My father insisted on Lilly at dinner Sunday night when I was considering the adoption. I had my heart set on Lucy, but wasn't sure. The calls the past few days with my family are hilarious. Everyone is voting for a name!

Last night, Tuesday night, I spoke with my little niece Karina who is 7 years old. She was full of tips - "don't give her too many treats, or she'll get diahrea," "buy the hard type of small treats since they are less likely to upset her stomach," etc... It was so adorable. She even asked if I would send her a framed photo of the dog like I had framed a photo of my former cat Grayson, "and add those little paw print drawings you made on the front too." I was so touched. I felt like the whole family were really welcoming her.

And then there's Stuart, my main squeeze. He is so excited that he is surfing Craigslist for dog supplies - for his house. This is to "ensure that the dog feels comfortable at my house too." He is so supportive, it's touching. I asked him to come with me when I pick her up and he agreed.

Yesterday I emailed out a bunch of my friends a photo of "Kola" like a proud parent and was so happy when I got a ton of "ohhhss" and "awws" and "wow she's cute"! I also went on Sunday to the library and borrowed literally 5 books on dog training and 1 book on CD on dog training. I also read a book on dog training in Hawaii. I'm so excited and nervous about house training and lease training. I also need to figure out what to do about lunch time visits. It'll be hard to go home everyday at lunch since my office is a 20 minute drive from my house one way. It'd take 40 minutes to drive & 20 minutes to play and walk the dog. I have to actually eat lunch too...*sigh*...I'll figure it out. I know. Okay. Gotto run. More later.