I've a new family member: Scrappy. His story goes like this...
I saw his picture in the paper over a month ago, in one of those sponsored picture ads for the Humane Society. "Terrier Mix" he was labeled. Ugly, is all I could think. He looked like his name described him: Scrappy. And at the same time, I was absolutely struck by his image. I looked at him and immediately thought: That's my dog.
Now, to have heard me talk about my current dog, Isabelle, over the past year, this would be the furthest thought you would ever think from my mind. She has had so many health problems and needs so much care that I had sworn off dogs - publicly. She's an eight-year-old English Mastiff, weighs in at 140lbs and rattles the windows when she snores. She doesn't drool, but she can fling lip stringers across the room and leave marks in places I never would have thought a dog could reach. She sheds constantly, can't control her bladder (thus, one of her many medications), is prone to urinary tract infection and has bad joints, making it hard for her to get up. Whew! Oh, but did I say I loved her from the moment I saw her as a 1-year-old in a Humane Society in Oregon? Yes - she was the exact dog I had been dreaming of. (Be careful what you wish for...)
So, I was out of my mind to think I would want another dog. Two weeks ago, I went to the feed store and stopped to check out the shelter pictures on the board. There he was again. Scrappy. "Been here several months already and needs to go..." Oh, he really was too ugly for Alpena. He didn't fit the Rottie/Huskey/Shepherd/Lab profile that everyone here seems to look for in a dog. He looked like a terrier in the face, but something like a coyote in the body, with terrier hair. "Gets along well with children and other dogs." I don't have kids, but I always wanted a dog that was good around them - for all the wild ones that come running up and always ask too late if it's okay to pet the doggie.
I went to lunch a week later with my friend Kathy. At the end of lunch I told her about the dog. "I just have to go see him," I said. She laughed at me like a good friend should when the other is talking nonsense but knows there is nothing she can do about it but enjoy her role of helplessness. I left and went directly to the shelter.
When I got there, I told them the dog I was looking for. The worker took me back through and pointed to an empty cage. "It may be that one, or," she went back to another run, "this one." She pointed at a sheepdog-looking thing.
"Not that one," I said. "Scrappier. Really scrappy looking."
"Yeah, you mean Scrappy." She took me back out front. "He actually went to a home."
I felt a sense of mixed relief and sadness. Okay, not meant to be, I told myself.
"But," she added, "it's not working out. Not any fault of Scrappy's. The woman already has five dogs, and a couple of them don't like Scrappy. Tell you what, if you leave your name and number, and if it doesn't work out for her, I'll give you a call."
As I stood finishing up my number, another worker walked up to us. "You here about Scrappy?" she asked me. I nodded. "The woman who took him, that's her right there." She pointed to a woman standing at the front desk.
I quickly introduced myself as the workers told her I was looking for Scrappy and as she was explaining to them why it wasn't working out with him. She didn't come in to bring him back. Of all things, she came to volunteer her time to walk dogs, which, come to find out, she does regularly. Five dogs at home and she volunteers to walk dogs! How huge is this woman's heart?!
After a brief chat, we left together and I followed her to her house to meet Scrappy. She talked and talked him up, but certainly didn't need to. When I saw him, I knew, he was my dog. He just was. There was no question about it. It all worked out for this very reason. We exchanged phone numbers, and I went home to "try to talk my husband into a second dog." I knew he would blow a gasket and never agree to this one easily, if at all.
After a few moments at home, talking chit-chat with him, he asked what else I did that day. "Funny you should ask," I began, then launched into the whole story of this dog who kept coming back into my life and meeting Judy just at the right moment at the shelter and how it was crazy to want another dog but Isabelle was old and I wanted a dog to run with me and...
"If you want the dog, go get the dog," were his first words.
I was shocked. "No, really...you're supposed to try to talk me out of this."
"Why? It's obvious you really want the dog, and if it will make you happy, then get the dog. Go, get him right now, and while you're at it, pick up the mail."
I hesitated. Walked about the house, did some work, thought about it, made sure it really did feel like the right thing to do, then, I called Judy. We were both equally stunned and excited. Us two total strangers on the phone, near tears of excitement over this mangy-looking mutt.
I got the mail, then I got Scrappy. It's been a whole week now, and he's here beside me in my office as I type this. He's a famous dog. As it turns out, come June he would have been in shelter for a full year. There are so many people I talk to who know him - from his picture in the paper or because they saw him at the shelter. I literally had a woman stop in her car on the road, get out and come up and ask me about him. "Oh, yeah! I know Scrappy. I told my mom about him, that she should get him, but she didn't." Good for me! I thought.
He's sweet, cuddly, loves to be pet and hugged, he walks well on leash, he runs in the morning with me and still has endless energy. He's great with all people so far. I take him to Hope House when I volunteer and the girls mob him and love him. He gets along with Isabelle (though is a bit too rough at times), and respects the cats (although we'd like him to chase the snot out of Deke - we think there's potential).
So, today, and for many more days, I am going to be grateful for no-kill shelters, for all the people who make them possible, and for wonderful volunteers like Judy. And of course, to my wonderful husband, who thinks Scrappy is just fine.
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