Brilliant … But Bouncy

This is the One.

There never will be another dog like Xena. I know, dogs are all great. But Xena was the greatest. We would never, ever try to replace her.

But the house was so empty without her. So I started scouring the internet for a dog to rescue. I stayed up into the wee hours of the night, searching. Searching. Searching. The only dogs I liked online were the ones who reminded me of Xena.

I went out to the local shelters, but none of those dogs interested me, either. While I didn’t want a dog who looked like Xena, I wanted a dog whose personality was happy and sweet – a dog who loved people. I also wanted – hopefully – a dog who didn’t shed. This proved to be an impossible combination.

One night, I found a poodle-mix on craigslist who looked like a curly version of Xena. I was attracted instantly – in spite of the matted, horrific condition of the poor animal’s fur. I wanted to save it immediately. Unfortunately, the dog wasn’t available. It was a “lost pet” and a courtesy “lost and found” listing for the local animal shelter.

Then I found a dog in a West Virginia shelter – a little brown poodle mix – and I talked to Bill about getting that dog. It was only about an hour’s drive away, and the shelter was closed on Sundays. I planned to head out early on Monday morning, but it snowed and schools were delayed.

Finally, I went out in search of that little brown dog. On the way, I stopped at another shelter – which was closed due to snowy conditions. Then, when I got to my destination, that brown dog was long gone. He’d been adopted more than a week earlier.

Not one to give up, and hoping for a sign from God (as if the closed shelter and missing dog weren’t enough), I kept driving to shelters. I stopped at five different animal shelters, with absolutely no luck.

On my way back home, I remembered how much Shane had wanted to go with me, just in case. But he had school. My estimated arrival time at home was when he’d be getting out of school, so I texted him.

“Do you want to go with me to the local shelter?” I asked. “I can pick you up after school.”

“Sure,” he texted back.

So, after driving hundreds of miles, I picked up Shane, and we wandered into our local shelter. We were just looking at all the cute dogs. We rounded the corner and went into the “puppy” section, and there was a pitifully shaved dog who – in spite of his outward appearance – seemed excited to see us. He was also excited to look outside. He wanted to be petted. He wanted to get out of his little cage. But he was happy, happy, happy.

I thought, “This is the one.”

Shane thought differently. I explained, though, that the dog’s personality would be more obvious if we could take him out of his cage. So we did.

First, we had to put in an application, meet with an adoption counselor, and get all the members of our family together to meet the dog. Which we did – even though we weren’t really looking.

When the adoption counselor showed me his unshaved photo – the way he looked when he arrived two weeks prior – I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was the moppet dog with the matted fur from the craigslist “lost and found.”

And when that dog came into the room to meet us, with his pitiful shaved self, it was love all around. So we completed our application, and got ourselves a new dog.

He’s not a replacement for our beloved Xena. But he is a new light in our home, so it is a little less dark now.