I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve posted anything new. The holidays have just flown by (as have January through April)!
So, yes, we have a new addition to our little family! Before anyone gets too excited, we adopted a dog! Daffy joined our family on December 14th. She was kind of a birthday/Christmas present for both of us.
We’ve always wanted a dog but were not allowed to have one in the apartments we’ve lived in. One day, there was a note on the front door of our building about a missing cat. I thought it was weird so I called the office and asked if we were allowed to have pets now. Apparently, we’ve been allowed since August! So, my search began. I was scouring petfinder.com for that special pooch. The one that just called out to me. Then, there she was.
Her name was Jenny and there was just something about her. The shelter had just had a visit from Santa and her letter really tugged at my heartstrings (I’m tearing up just reading it again!):
Dear Santa – Hi, this is Jenny from Camden County Animal Shelter! Thank you so much for coming to visit all of us good boys and girls. I loved the yummy treat you brought me!
Santa, I was so sad when my new family had to leave me back at the Shelter. I loved being in a real home and I was a very good girl. Can you please bring another family for Christmas, one that will never leave me? I will give them kisses and love every single day!
Merry Christmas Santa!
Love,
Jenny
I knew she was it but wanted to go see her before I got too excited. I sent her info to Michael and we made plans to go and see her that Saturday. We fell in love almost immediately. She had been in the shelter twice. Her first owners starved her and the 2nd returned her even though she “didn’t do anything wrong” (we found out later that this wasn’t true). So, we filled out the application and waited. While waiting, we went to PetSmart to get all the supplies we thought we’d need and decided to re-name her Daffy.
It was the longest 24 hours EVER! We hadn’t heard from the shelter so I called them just to make sure we didn’t forget anything on or application or something (It was a ruse, really. I wanted an answer!). The woman checked and said “I have you down as picking her up today.” I never got dressed so fast in my entire life.
It was difficult adjusting to having Daffy with us at first. She wasn’t trained at all – I think she knew sit and that was all. They said she was housebroken, but apparently, she had forgotten. She pulled on the leash so hard I had sore shoulders for a long time (she actually pulled me down once!). I was so frustrated and just didn’t know what to do. And, beneath everything else, I was a little scared because, even though we didn’t want to admit it at first, she was part pit bull. Since she was so unruly, I didn’t know what she’d do.
We ended up getting a personal trainer for her. He had been coming for 5 weeks and we’d hardly made any progress. Finally, I decided that we needed to look into the training facility recommended by the shelter. We went for our free demo and evaluation. By the time we left, we had signed up. It was really expensive but the training is for as long as Daffy is with us and we can go as much or as little as we want. After just a few lessons, we saw a dramatic improvement in her!
So, now we’re pretty used to having her around and are still attending training classes. Even though the shelter said she was “good with other dogs, kitties and children of any age”, she really isn’t. She very dog aggressive and we’re not sure about children so we’re being very careful.
I can’t imagine my life without her now. Daffy’s finally found the family that will never leave her. And she does give us puppy kisses & love every day!
I have some new photos to add but, if you’d like to see some pics of Daffy, you can check out my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcarvin77/sets/72157611220490365/
