The Big Day - Adoption Day journal entry...

April 10th 2008 - Thursday - Day 1

This was the BIG DAY! I actually went to work Thursday morning but my mind was on fire with one thought, "Today I'm adopting my dog! What should I name her? What time is Stuart meeting me at my office? What do I have to do today before I adopt my dog? What should I name her? I can't think straight. It's almost time to go time to go get her Lucy, Lilly or Lorelei!"

At 11.45 Stuart showed up at my office. He also wanted to pick up his fish tank which was at my office. Given how riled up I was, heart pounding, barely able to think straight, his calm and slow approach to unplugging the fish tank and chatting with me made me feel like I was in a high speed warp and he was in another slower dimension. Needless to say, I was a tad short with him and asked him to hurry up, "because I'm so excited I can't think straight."

Once we hit I-40, I think I drove like 75+mph because the clock was ticking and I had a date at the pound to pick up Lucy at 12 noon sharp. Granted, the dog didn't know that and the pound wasn't going to let someone else adopt her, but I felt overwhelmed by a sense of urgency to get there. We had to stop by my house for a few minutes to have him place the fish tank into my kitchen. *Exhale* I actually checked myself out in the mirror and considered changing out of my jeans and black short sleeved polo because I wanted to look good on that big day, especially considering that we were going to take a ton of photos. But I decided that I looked good enough and just wanted to get there.

When we drove up Municipal Drive, I was once again struck by the strange barren landscape of an unpaved road and areas of cleared trees, dirt and random broken large steel equipment. It looked like more of a garbage dump or industrial waste area than the local animal shelter driveway. Once we turned the corner, we entered the steel gated compound of two 70's style metal one story structures. I parked and smiled at Stuart. "Are you ready to be a doogy mommy?" he asked. I smiled, "I'm totally excited!" We agreed that once we picked her up, we'd take a long walk around the shelter and likewise take her for a long walk around my neighborhood before taking her into my house.

We arrived at the front desk at the shelter and I saw a white board behind the desk, " 12 noon - adoption". And I was excited to see that and felt a tad guilty that we were half and hour late.I was so excited to see "Kola" again that I was disappointed by the 6 pages of forms and discussion of dog diseases and viruses that were all literally Latin to me. I tried my hardest to listen. Stuart was distracted by the other dogs and the barking and was peering through the adoption window. "Stuart, can you come over here and listen too?" His mind was like a sponge and I wanted to make sure that at least one of us could actually process and remember what the shelter was telling us. He stood behind me and rubbed my back. It felt good. There was a form to fill out for the microchip manufacturer. It had the blank line, "dog name" and I was torn. Stuart encouraged me to finally pick one of my three names I'd been thinking about all week - Lucy, Lilly and Lorelei. "I'm leaning towards Lucy," I finally said. Lilly was my father's pick. Lorelei was my sister and mother's favorite. Stuart wanted me to name her Kayla, but I didn't like it. My mom had even suggested "Kela" as a female version of her last name, but I was convinced that someone in the dog park would think I'm yelling, 'Come here killer".
"Lucy," I said. "I wanted to name her Lucy even before I adopted her, I just wasn't sure."
"Well that's what you should do then."
I filled out the form. Pet name Lucy. The theme song for "I love Lucy" ran through my head as did the image of her name on a red heart dog tag. Lucy was the final contender. Finally, after what felt like hours but was actually about 15 minutes, the shelter rep said that he'd go "get your dog." I think I jumped up and down and clapped like a little girl. Stuart raised an eyebrow at me and smiled. "I know, I'm acting silly, but I'm so happy."

Then we heard barking. I mean guttural loud aggressive barking. "That couldn't be Kola,Lucy, could it?" Just as I said that, she came barelling out of the adoption area like a high speed train and barking. "Oh no, I thought. I hope I didn't just adopt a Marley?" The shelter guy seemed to read my thoughts. "Don't worry," he said, "all dogs get very excited after getting out of the shelter. A long walk would be a good idea." Before we left, I asked Stuart to take a photo of Kola with the shelter guy, whose name I have now forgotten already. It was a cute snapshot, except that he had to basically hold her up since she wouldn't sit still on her own.

The moment he handed me the lease I felt was momentous. This was not only the moment I had waited for all sleepless week, rather a moment I'd waited for my entire life. I'd always dreamed of adopting a dog.

We walked her around the gravely parking lot and tall grass areas. I definatly stepped in some stinky poop. Kola was barreling ahead of us. We finally got her to stop using some treats so we could take a few snapshots too. First Stuart took a few of me and the dog and then I took a few of them walking. It was heard since she was so wiggly.

After about half an hour we headed towards the car. Kola dropped on all floors and acted terrified of the car. I'd thought of a lot of potential problems - most of them involving house training and chewing. But fear of the car wasn't something that I'd considered. "Just pick her up," Stuart said. I sighed. I didn't want to force her to do anything. I three in a few treats. I think she actually walked backwards. It was the only way. I picked her up and plopped her in the back seat. I was so worried about calming her down that I asked Stuart to drive so that I could sit in the backseat. She was clutching the edge of the car seat with her paws. When I slid into the car next to her, she crawled towards me and place her head in my lap. I was already in love with her and I'd only adopted her less than an hour earlier.

"How's she doing?" Stuart asked from the driver's seat.
"Good. She's scared, but she's got her head on my lap and I'm stroking her." I felt like I'd just adopted a child and was leaving the hospital. All I had thought about all week was Kola and how I'd take care of her, when I'd walk her, when I'd feed her, what I'd do about issues. I tried to learn as much as I could the past weeks about dog training. I borrowed about 5 books on dog training and listened to a DVD set in the car "the loved dog method" - which was my favorite. I was determined to not only take care of Kola, but to train her with nice manners too. And right away.

Once we arrived at my house, Lucy seemed a little calmed down.