A Boy And His Dog: A Love Story

Years ago, when Chief and I found one another, he was about 18 months old and fully trained. The story the guy at the shelter told me was that he was a pure-bread white German Shepherd that’d gone through an extensive obedience program. According to him, as Chief got older, he was less white and more tan, and the people wanted a white dog so they gave him up. I find this hard to believe because he was seriously the coolest dog I’ve ever known but, well, people are weird…so maybe it’s true. \_(ツ)_/¯

Plus, their loss was my gain, and I’ll forever be grateful for finding a rescue dog who rescued me, too.

But this isn’t a story about Chief.

A Boy And His Dog: A Love Story

One of the things we promised Tucker to make our move from Virginia to Colorado easier (because it pretty much sucked) was that once we got here, we’d get him a dog. I was thinking another rescue dog, preferably house-broken. We visited the Pikes Peak Humane Society and then one of the adoption events at a chain pet store.

While Tucker wanted just about every dog we met, the right one wasn’t at either of these. We looked online, and talked about how awesome German Shepherds are, but how it might be nice to have a smaller, non-shedding dog. Smaller dogs = smaller poops, etc.

A week ago Sunday, I found out the Humane Society was having an adoption event at a vegan festival downtown, and off we went. There was this reddish dog with green eyes who was about two, and I was feeling sold-ish on him until the woman who’d been fostering him asked Tucker whether he’d be the one to walk him.

“Well, yes,” we said.

“This probably isn’t the dog for you then,” she said, and explained that he was very difficult to walk, and that he’d likely push over a fence.

We’d seen three puppies when we came in but everybody at the festival was hogging them, and I figured they were probably spoken for. They were three sisters who’d come up from Mexico and been spayed two days earlier. We shoved our way into the group that was ogling them, and found out nobody’d yet adopted them.

We started playing with the one they called Angel, and Tucker and Robert were totally in love. “Of the three sisters, she’s the calmest,” the Humane Society woman said.

“Sold!” Robert said.

“We get to keep her?” Tucker asked. “Forever?”

“I love her. Her name’s Nugget,” he said.*

And so it is.

 

***

This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post. This week, we do Photo Share Friday, where you share one photo (or more ah hem) and the story behind it. Kenya Johnson of Sporadically Yours and I host each week. Join us!

P.S. Ok, you didn’t think three photos was enough, did you? I didn’t. I mean this is A Boy And His Dog: A Love Story, and there are no photos of the boy with the dog. Plus, Tucker was sick on Sunday and Monday with a fever. He was pretty couch-bound and this time? I didn’t have to sit next to him the entire time because look:

*There was some debate over her name. Tucker and I were set on Nugget, but Robert thought it should be more girlie, or more Australian (she’s part Australian Shepherd). The comments on Facebook are, um, enlightening…

Ok, NOW you can link up. 🙂