Humane Society Special

When we lived in Sheboygan from 2005 to 2006, the agreement was simple. If we moved 2 1/2 hours from home, I got to get a dog. That's all there was to it. So for a month I searched shelter sites, specifically petfinder.com, looking for a young to adult, small dog that was cat and kid friendly and somewhat low mantinance. I had never lived without a dog until I left my parents house, so a dog was not a huge life changing thought to me. A dog had always been a part of a family, and that part for me was missing. Well, enter "Snickers". On my first trip to the Sheboygan County Humane Society, I was interested in meeting a little female beagle. She was adopted. I kindly asked the lady working if she would keep us in mind for the previous stated qualities. Remember, I was thinking, and Bryan had been promised, a Chiuahua sized dog for our 2 bedroom condo. I could not have fallen in love quicker with a puppy than I did with this muddy, hairy, stinky, 70 pound mutt that came out to meet Grace and I. He and his mom had been there, turned over during a divorce, for 4 months. Dubbed our "70 pound Chiuahua" and renamed Foster, he has yet to meet a person who doesn't like him. Dog-haters like Foster. He doesn't leave the yard, generally doens't bark, has licked maybe 3 times, and is fantastic with all kids, cats and other dogs. The moral of my long love-story is simple. There are so many animals sitting in shelters, and this being something I have always been passionate about, consider adopting a dog or cat before EVER buying one. (Two of our three cats are/were adopted. The other was off a farm.) I am so far beyond annoyed by hearing about designer dogs and puppy-mill pet-stores. Granted, Foster is more of an exception than the rule. He did not come with a guarantee, but neither does a fancy little puppy. We adopted him with intentions of getting a dog that may have some training needs and we lucked out. People ask how I trained him, and I simply state that he came that way. He is our "Humane Society Special" and we know that he will never be replaced. Perhaps that is the hardest part of having adopted him at 3 years old. We missed a bit of his life, but that's what makes him Foster.