Who Rescued Who?

I was riding my bike yesterday, and I saw the cutest sticker posted on the back of a neighborhood car.

It was September 2001 when I decided that I wanted to share my life with a dog. My husband and I were separated at the time, and my son, who was 11 then, was bothering me almost daily to get a dog. It was not a happy time in my life. I was really depressed, some days I didn’t even want to get out of bed, and I thought that a dog might help me get back on the right track.

After my son came home from school that day, I announced that we could get a dog, and we promptly departed on our quest to the local animal shelter to see what was there. My only stipulation was that I wanted it to be a small dog. There were a couple of very cool dogs that I had become acquainted with, and both of them had been adopted from a shelter. So by the time we got there, we knew that we would be searching for a small dog. We had no idea there was a dog already at the shelter, waiting for us.

There was a nice man who greeted us as we walked through the shelter doors. He was a volunteer who helped care for the dogs. I didn’t know it at the time, but for me, he was a matchmaker. He asked us what type of dog we were looking for, and I told him we didn’t care, except we wanted a small dog. He explained that there was a Miniature Schnauzer in the back, who was looking for a home, and he escorted us to the dog. It was love at first sight.

The volunteer told us that the Schnauzer wouldn’t be released for about a week. The dog had been picked up roaming the streets, and they needed to keep him at the shelter to see if the dog’s owner was looking for their lost pet. We understood, but asked to meet the dog in a “get acquainted” room anyhow. The volunteer was more than happy to accommodate us. We shared about a half an hour with the little dog, and we were hooked.

When we left, we asked the volunteer about how to obtain the dog. He told us that they held a lottery for popular dogs, but he wasn’t aware that anyone else was interested. He added that if we continued to come to the shelter daily to “keep him busy,” we could narrow down the number of parties of interest on lottery day. So we did exactly that.

We visited our new buddy in “jail” everyday until lottery day. It was a school day, so I went to the shelter alone to pick up Hardy. I was there right when the doors opened. There was only one other person there for the lottery. We walked together to watch, as the little doggie was removed from his “cell.”  While doing so, I told our story about our daily visits and how my son would be devastated if I didn’t come home with this dog. The man kindly dropped out of the lottery because of my son. I adopted the little fella that day. He was a purebred Miniature Schnauzer with a silver coat, cropped ears, a bob tail, and already neutered. He cost me all of $32.