Thursday, January 30, 2014

harry, my little monster

harry is my little special christmas savior.  coming home to an empty house was devastating (well, there are my cats and of course parents but it wasn't the same without my baby jordan).  still more was my grandmother's house, but we will save that for another post and i will try to keep this one upbeat.

while still in england, i began browsing petfinder.com, which i think i mentioned in a previous post (but it's been so long since i last wrote, who knows!) and found this adorable dog leah.  well, lo and behold leah got adopted (yay!) but i was still hooked out this shelter.  it was very near to my parents' house and it appeared they train and treat the dogs well as it was also a training centre so i kept browsing their pets.

i want to take a side bar here and say that apparently, this shelter had some issues a few years ago - the old owner wasn't properly feeding or giving attention to the dogs.  this has completely changed and the new owner is wonderful, as are the staff/volunteers.  the dogs are so happy, have plenty of toys and treats, a lot of which are donated by people who got their dogs from this kennel.  it was such a nice place!

i came across two black lab puppies but really thought a puppy was too much work and would be too hyper; these things proved true but i don't want to jump ahead.  they were both male "older" puppies, around 6 months.  they also had a cute 5 y/o female black lab who i decided was the one... until my mom called the shelter and was told she wasn't available, but they did have a 2 y/o female yellow lab (yet the 5 y/o is still listed on their site and harry has been taken off so i'm confused as to why she is still listed... anyways...).

my dad was not pleased with my mother and i as he did not want to get another dog this soon (yet he is an animal person so whatever) but through my deep depression, we decided to get one.  we went on sunday december 22nd and met the 2 y/o female.  she.  was.  in.  sane.  super jumpy (she kept over the play area fence!) and once we ran out of treats, wanted nothing to do with us but look out windows.  my mom had also spotted another dog sitting quietly in his room when we walked by, not acting like a nut like the rest of them.  we decided to meet him, too.

i had seen him online - "hercules" - one of the male black puppies (he was 8 months by this point).  online he didn't seem very cute, a little awkward-shaped but in person he was the cutest thing.  we met him, too, and played with him and he interacted with us and i liked us more than the female did.

he was it.

we couldn't take him home that day because my dad had to meet him.  which meant we had to convince him to come to the shelter.  i think i made him feel bad because he met us the next day after work and we took home my new baby!  we renamed him harry - i chose it because of the similar sounds, not because of harry styles, prince harry, or even harry potter (though if it were any, it would be the last).

harry came, originally, from a shelter in arkansas called "last chance arkansas."  i think they saved dogs from kill shelters and "distribute" them to other shelters like the one we got harry from; i think they actually had several dogs from arkansas there.  i really hope the yellow lab gets a home soon - it was hard to "choose" a dog and it did break my heart to have to leave her there, but it just wasn't meant to be; we bonded better and "fit" better with little harry.

some personality bits we have learned so far: harry does not like the cats.  they won't play with him and are jerks, but to be fair, harry is also a jerk getting all up in their shit (sometimes literally).  they will be friends one day, i'm sure.  charlie (fat beastly cat) used to like to go outside with jordan but after jordan passed away, was too afraid to be alone out there.  come spring time i'm sure charlie will appreciate harry more when they play outside.

be prepared for more posts like this one and some remembering jordan.  i love them both.  dogs are the best things ever - jordan was always there for me during rough times and harry has already supported me with the loss of both jordan and my grandmother even if he doesn't know it yet.  i'm so happy we were able to rescue him!

"so i'm sitting.  where the hell is my treat?"

christmas 2013

<3

brb.


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