Alrighty....so here's part 1 of my weekend recap.....
1) The new addition to our family. So as you may remember from a few weeks ago, the kids and I have basically been giving the wife some grief about adopting another dog. After the whole hurricane thing, there was a rather extensive article in the local paper about the animals that had been displaced by the storms, and were looking for new homes...ya know...that sort of thing. Anyway, we were planning on going a week ago, but you know...the whole Hurricane Jeanne thing put a bit of a damper on the visit. So Saturday morning we headed off to an animal shelter in Boca that's a "no kill" site and checked out a couple of potential candidates. There was one that was kinda cute (hey! I know someone by that name!) named Mindy, who was a Schnauzer mix and very affectionate. But I decided that I wanted to go down to the Humane Society in Broward and check out what they had to offer, especially since they had advertised a Border Collie was available....since that's what my boy Midnight is, I wanted to take a gander. I also selected 4 other potentials. Well, when we got there, it was the old "good news, bad news" scenario, as every single dog that I had picked out on the website had been adopted (I mean--that's not really BAD news--just disappointing) and the place was absolutely MOBBED with people trying to adopt an animal (which is good news). Well we settled on two finalists to look at, a Catahoula (which is a hunting dog from Louisiana) and an Akita. As it turned out, there was a hold on the Catahoula, so we decided to look at the Akita.....a very affectionate girl named Jasmine (which is a horrible name). She was very sweet, and besides all that she was a return--apparently her owner had her for a couple of years before becoming ill and having to give her up--which meant that if we wanted her we could take her home that very day. That would give us a chance to let her and the fellas get to know one another (which was viewed as a positive).
Her chart said that she was good with kids, other dogs, cats and potty trained. The deal, as they say, was sealed and Jazz happily jumped into the car for the ride to her new home. She seemed pretty happy, especially since she had been at the Humane Society for 3 weeks (hey, I'd be relieved also). We decided to have the first meeting with the fellas across the street, sothat we could establish all the psychological boundaries and she wouldn't be perceived as "invading their turf".
UGH! The hoops I jump through for dogs! My worries weren't warranted as within a few hours Midnight & Jazz were chasing each other around the kitchen table, playing like they had known each other all their lives. Beezer on the other hand, seemed a tad depressed. Kim & I think he was reacting as if he had lost his buddy Midnight to the new dog. But I realize that eventually they will all get used to one another and get along fine. There's really no aggressive behavior, other than the occasional growl when Midnight gets too close to Jazz's food bowl. Hey, I do the same thing when one of the kids won't pass me a roll with dinner.
So the next day....we were coming home from the trip to Best Buy (that would be Part 2 of the story today) and as I opened the door, Jazz decided to check out the rest of the neighborhood. OMAN! She decided to sprint for the end of the street, and thankfully decided to head west, instead of going towards University Drive. So I'm running after her, and truth be told, my ass is waaaaay to fat and waaaaay too old to be chasing some damn dog around the neighborhood. Thankfully, someone on the next street over had his dogs on the front porch, and Jazz decided to go over and see what the heck they were up too. I ran up to get her, and Jazz makes another bolt for it. I did the old Golden Glove grab for her collar and made a spectacular catch....thereby saving my wife the trouble of admitting me into the hospital with heart failure. Needless to say, Jazz will NOT be going outside without the leash for QUITE awhile.
Other than that....she's fitting in, chasing the cats, roughhousing with the fellas, and demanding a treat whenever the mood strikes her. Typical woman!
Part 2 later....
jeff
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