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Animal Shelter. A Few Thoughts. Two Adoptions.

A fresh influx of dogs brought our kennel population to eighteen, and that's about full. Beyond that, dogs need to double up in a kennel. Our dogs come to us in a myriad of ways : divorces, foreclosures, confiscations, strays, rescued from cruel conditions, and even rescues from pounds down South where they would have been put to death via injection or gas chamber.

Dottie, a cattle dog mix, went home last Sunday with a couple looking for their first dog together. She stayed with us for approximately a month and a half. Mostly White, Dottie had a few black spots on her body and head. Thus, the name. About medium to large in size, Dottie was strong and a puller. She's the type who will give you nylon burns on your hands from the leash. Dottie didn't fully realize what was going on until our president heaved her unto the back of the SUV and shut the tailgate on her. And off she went to a place easily superior to the best kennel we can provide at the shelter.

And then, there was Tony Baloney. A young hound mix, Tony Baloney made the shelter his home for approximately one month. He also went home last week, evidently, to someone with a very big heart. For a while, we had Tony Baloney shaking and salivating uncontrollably. His seizures would make your heart sink. It wasn't a nice sight to behold, and your loving embraces do little to settle his condition. The shelter, as usual, provided the proper medical attention to stabilize his condition. The last time I walked Tony Baloney, I walked him very slowly in order not to excite him. It was like walking in molasses. At one point, I was just standing with him by the bushes, looking out to nowhere, waiting for a propitious moment to proceed. We must have looked like two lost souls in the woods.

Adoptions never fail to warm the heart, and it is a bittersweet moment when you see them hop into a vehicle and drive away with their new family. The irony here is, you never want to see them again at the shelter no matter how dear they have become to you. So long, good-bye, farewell.

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