Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Another New Addition to the Wilkerson Household...

In my email two days ago, was a note about two dogs that were looking for homes. Ahh, dogs.

Gloria and I had been the proud owner of what arguably was the best dog on the planet, Molly. Molly was a 14 year old Shetland Sheepdog that unfortunately contracted urinary tract cancer and we made the decision to put her down March two years ago. That was easily my worst day in a very long time, but it was a day we knew would come.

As I read about the two dogs that were looking for a home, I was happy to see that they were housetrained, one already knew some verbal commands, and after a nice phone call, I learned that same one was a quiet dog.

I have to tell you that I was very excited when I found out this last part. Living in a more rural area has been great, mostly because there is not the incessant barking of dogs that we had when we lived in the city. I have, for a very long time, been interested in finding a new dog, but as with as my friends and family will attest to - I am ultra picky.

The only other overriding x-factor was that the dog would get along with children, and so I packed up Jade, our 17 month-old, and headed the the friendly expanses of a city called Troy, MO, about 20 minutes north of our current location.

The facility that the dog was at is wonderful and clearly has people that care not only about the people that come into the place, but the clientele. The place is probably the cleanest animal care/humane society-type place I have ever seen. After Jade and I had a nice adventure finding the place and met with a great lady named "Claire" who introduced us to "Zada". Zada is clearly shy, and just about everyone thinks that there was a man in her life at some point that was beating on her. I share that perspective as well. Her and the other dog, "Zippy" were found on a very large farm wandering where they had been abandoned. Claire has done a wonderful job caring for Zada in particular, and as Jade and I spent time with her, we found that after the initial "new shyness" she was also very calm, patient, and -- drumroll please -- quiet.

I have to admit that I was immediately sold at this point, but the final gauntlet had yet to be thrown down: how would she react to Jade the Vunderkid? It didn't take long to get the answer. After Jade met Zada and had a short, but very clear conversation (that only Jade can understand however), she patted Zada on the head and squeezed her nose. Being the recipient of said nose-squeeze, I can tell you that they are not fingers, but high tensile poly-carbon rods, covered with flesh, connected to a hydraulic pumping system that open and close on demand - she is very strong and determined for a 17 month-old.

Zada didn't flinch at all and just blinked.

Check please :)

Tonite, my wife Gloria, Jade and I ushered in the newest member of our family, "Zeta", complete with a spelling change to the name, but losing none of the sound or cuddly goodness that is a dog.

As I sit here writing this blog, Zeta is sitting along side my desk (snaps a picture) and I have to wonder to myself: how is it we've gone almost two entire years without a dog at our side?

I look forward to having Zeta to draw blog fodder from and invite you to meet her - she is a welcome and early Xmas present to our entire family, and I have high hopes that she will provide us with the same great moments we had when we had Molly and more.

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