Saturday, July 4, 2015

The April experiment

Anthony and I adopted a second dog for 24 hours. Her name is April.

Anthony had suggested a few times recently that we should consider getting a second dog as a companion to Lucky. Poor Lucky has always been a skittish dog and we both thought that another dog might help him become more confident. I've tried to boost his confidence over the few years we've had him but have had limited success.

The TV show features an animal from the Humane Society each week and they brought April a couple of weeks ago. She was super sweet and based on the description of how she behaves, I thought she might be a good candidate if we were going to proceed with an adoption.

I sent a picture to Anthony and we talked about it at length, and decided to go to the Humane Society yesterday, bring Lucky with us, and see if they would hit it off.

The meeting went well. We decided to give it a try.

I had warned Anthony that it would be a different experience than we have with Lucky. Another dog would not understand the boundaries that Anthony expects in the house -- not climbing on his end of the couch, not knowing it shouldn't go on his side of the bedroom, sleeping patterns, etc.

April, to her credit, is an amazing dog. She likes everyone. I'd sit on the couch and she jumped up and snuggled right up, and followed me everywhere around the house. She was easy for me to quickly get attached to. Unfortunately, that didn't sit well with Anthony. He tried, but it was too much for him. Anthony got about one hour of sleep because he sat up nervously in bed all night watching to see what she was doing.

This morning, after talking it over, we decided we needed to find her another home. She's so wonderful that it didn't take long... our friend Payton to the rescue.

We packed up her stuff and drove her over to his apartment, he instantly liked her, and wanted to keep her. Deal done. He'll be a good doggy daddy.

I think Anthony really tried. He's a person that needs to have his life predictable and neat and this didn't fit that. I'm grateful he gave it a shot, we would always wonder if it would work and now we know. We learned that it will work best if we're a one pet family.

I did get some cute photos to remember her and the experience by. I'll miss you April, but I can go visit you at Payton's.

Cats at the Humane Society
"I want mew to adopt me
right meow!"

Lucky at the Humane Society
waiting to meet April

Anthony talks to Lucky while Lucky
hides under his chair

Hey look!
It's Anthony's butt!

Anthony and April
get to know each other

Lucky and April
admiring Anthony

Anthony watches April
dismount from the couch

Anthony gives April
a little love

April explores our house

Well, hello there!

Where did Anthony go?

April waits for us to get ready
to take her to Payton's

One last frolic on the couch
before she leaves us.
Goodbye April!