6/8/24

 I was having an emotional morning with nerves and anxiety questioning our decision to add to our pack/family. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. It is easy to add a smaller dog when Phineas was the big dog. But now we aren’t adding a small one, we are adding a bull dozer. It has to be the right bull dozer.

My gut was twisting with the “is this the one?” Question echoing in my brain like a broken record. I finally decided that this decision was going to be made with facts and intuition but not on cuteness or desire to fill the void. Those were the boundaries I put in place for myself. 

Yes this is a family pet BUT really everyone knows that I am making the decision. That is just how it goes as a family member of a Leo. PLUS….it is my area of expertise. If something goes wrong (like my biggest fear, Jiminy gets hurt) I have to carry that horror with me on my shoulders alone. That is a big responsibility that I don’t want anyone else to have.

“Are we doing the right thing?” “Is now the right time?” The uncertainty was real and weighted. I felt I was carrying around 100 pounds of worry.

Avery and I went to a rummage sale at the church this morning. I spent two dollars. Walked away with some decent treasures. I even overpaid and had them keep the change. I think rummage sales are under utilized. People just throw things away. I view it as recycling. This took my mind off things for a little bit.

11:00 came. We had our meeting with the adoption agency as well as got to see how this new dog interacted with other dogs and people. He failed his cat test and that was looming. This dog is probably not right. 

He is, in fact, a bull dozer of love. However, he walked gently on a leash, greeted several other dogs with a sniff and a tail wag, and moved on. He hopped right in the car of the guy I was talking to and laid right down. Long car rides, no worries. The adoption agency said he didn’t mind water either. Score!

After seeing his interactions with the other dogs, I knew he was the one. I felt it. I knew I would have the feeling when I KNEW. Just like I had with Jiminy (the dog we weren’t even looking for) and Penny,  another dog I wasn’t looking for but was drawn to. 

We lost out on Penny. Someone else adopted her for 4 months and she didn’t work out. We were then approached to take her at that point. Some days we understand why she didn’t work out, but we love her just the same! Plus she belongs with US!

The first dog we picked out, the rescue never got back to me. The second dog was unavailable. The next 6 recommendations the rescue made had various traits that weren’t what I was looking for. Too big (75 pounds is too much), nose was too short and would over heat too quickly (and die) not suitable for our life style, too many facial folds that would likely get infected and smell, cropped ears (I just don’t like them)….the list goes on. I asked the rescue to stop sending me dogs and I would reach out to them if I found something. I was ready to stop looking as this was a sign that the stars were NOT aligning. 

All of the sudden, I stumbled across this 4 year old pup….with soulful eyes and the pitty smile. He looked about 50 pounds in the picture and a color I had not considered. He was cute. Then I saw his name. He was named after an Office character. His name is Andy Bernard (that won’t be kept). But weird right?

A few weeks ago, I did have a chat with Phineas up at the islands on one of my walks. I asked him to help us find another dog that needed a family like ours to love it. I asked him to send us a dog that will love our spot at the islands as much as he did. I know he is still with us. I swear I heard him just the other day. I feel stupid for saying it, but believe it just the same.

Today we learned Andy Bernard’s story. He was found on February 11 th, at night on an abandoned road with 11 other dogs of various breeds, ages and sizes. It was raining pretty significantly. Some of the dogs were rescued. They had to go back the next day and found more. This happened a few times. This is how they found Andy Bernard’s group.

He had lots of wounds that were infected along with some of the other dogs. He was the shyest of the bunch and took a week to start trusting the volunteers. 

He has been in the foster’s care since then. They have brought him to several adoption events but say everyone skips over him and they don’t know why. People pet him, like him, but then they end up adopting another dog.

Today on our call, Andy Bernard was at an adoption event as a socialization outing. There were numerous other dogs there. The person I was talking to showed me how he walked on a leash up to the other dogs, sniffed and kept walking. The guy was holding the leash with 1 finger. 

He describes when Andy gets worked up, he gets the zoomies. Everyone gets the zoomies, even people do. But for the most part this dog seems relaxed. Since he was found with small dogs I don’t have any doubt he will do fine with my bossy crew.

He is in South Carolina and will be transported at the end of the month, and we will go pick him up in Buffalo. 

I told the rescue that we definitely want him. So he will be joining our family at the end of the month. This will give us time to “dog proof”. I am going to treat him like a dog that will eat everything and remove the things I think could cause a foreign body surgery.

We can then slowly introduce our basket of toys and Phineas’s old bones and stuffies.  

We are excited about adding our Nard Dog (Office reference) to the group!