So, I have told the stories of my other dogs, Zeus and Blondie and now Hera’s story needs to be told.
As readers know, I lost Zeus over the Victoria Day weekend in May of this year. It was one of the hardest things I have ever gone through. I still miss him and I am sure Blondie does as well.
In July, I had a Friday off of work so I decided to drop off a couple of bags of the food that Zeus ate to the Humane Society. I could have mixed it in with Blondie’s food but I figured since it was unopened bags, they could use it and if not, they make sure it is donated to someone who can – it won’t go to waste.
I made the trip to the Humane Society in the south east part of the city. They were running an Emergency Adoption Event because they had done a rescue of a number of cats and rabbits and had a surplus of them. I dropped the food off in the donation bins and instead of leaving, I decided to go and look at the dogs.
I had already talked about getting another dog. I missed having two dog companions and I am sure Blondie missed having a dog friend as well. I had said though that I was going to wait until I returned from Ontario in September before I considered another dog. I was also going to get a small or medium sized dog. I also wanted my next dog to be another male.
So, as I said, I decided to go and look at the dogs who were waiting for their forever homes. I came across Hera, who was named Anya. She has some special medical issues and there are a lot of information displayed on the window of her pen. She was a good looking Shepherd girl, big ears and huge feet – I was sure she was going to grow into both.
I thought she was a good looking dog and I hoped that someone would adopt her.
I continued looking at the other dogs, there weren’t a lot available for adoption, that is a good thing I guess. I also looked at the various other animals, no interest at all in them. I am not a huge cat fan and small animals and rabbits offer no interest to me at all. I do hope they all find good homes of course, but I am a dog person.
During my second trip around, there was a couple looking at Hera’s information card. The woman said something along the lines of “oh, I don’t want this dog, she needs medication and that’s too much work”. I thought to myself, wow, that is likely going to be the attitude of many people who look at this dog and decided, I am going to adopt her.
As I’ve said, it was an adoption event so when I went to stand in line, it was pretty long with about 10 people ahead of me. So, in the line I stood, for the next hour and a half. I finally got to the front of the line to speak with one of the adoption specialists. She went over in detail Hera’s medical and behavioural history, it was very complete. She takes medication to control seizures. It completely controls them though, so not so bad. I was happy with what I was told and moved onto the next step – meeting the dog.
They brought her into a room me with and a few toys. She was an active dog, didn’t take any real interest in me – she was likely thinking “who’s this guy?”. We went outside as well and played in the yard a bit. She seemed like a good dog.
The next step was setting up an appointment so that Hera could meet Blondie – a very important step. I didn’t figure that there would be any issues, Blondie seems to like just about ALL other dogs and Hera is a puppy and generally, they like everyone too. We scheduled a meeting for the next day, Saturday, at 9:30 in the morning. I put a $50 deposit on her, this moved her from “available for adoption” to “on hold”.
The next morning, Blondie and I showed up to meet her. The meeting couldn’t have gone any better really, both dogs seemed to like each other. That sealed the deal.
I left Blondie outside in one of the pens while I filled in all the required paperwork. The adoption person was worried that I would be mad that I couldn’t take Hera with me then and there, but I knew she hadn’t been spayed yet so I knew it would be a few days. Blondie was happy to be released from the outside pen and we headed home
A few days later, I got a call from the Humane Society that Hera was spayed, the operation went perfectly and she was ready to go home. I went and picked her up the next day (Thursday) at noon.
The car ride home was great. Hera just laid in the back seat, didn’t make a peep. She likely didn’t know what was going on at all and was quite possibly confused. We stopped at the pet store near my house to purchase a leash that matched her new collar.
Another short ride and we were home. I opened the door and Blondie greeted us. She looked at Hera and sort of asked me “what is she doing here?”… Blondie was MUCH more welcoming of Hera than Zeus was of Blondie 4.5 years ago.
They played, Hera explored her new house and back yard. It was a pretty good first day.
In the few weeks since Hera has joined the family, the dogs are getting along well. Hera is a great puppy, well behaved, listens well and learned her new name pretty quickly too. She is a smart one as well, smarter than I am maybe.
Blondie and I are happy to have a new addition to the D’Arcy pack, welcome, Hera.
Kevin's Ramblings... 