It had been about two-and-a-half years since we had a dog. Our heeler mix, Sookie, died in July 2023 and our sweet hound mix, Arrow, in April 2022. They were both long-lived pets that made it more than 13 years, and they were a major part of our family having both moved with Angela and I from Pennsylvania to North Dakota to Ohio and back to Pennsylvania. They were also around for Will’s birth, although they were both senior dogs by that time. By that point they were mostly interested in comfort, and it’s understandable that they never took to a noisy and unpredictable toddler in the house.
After more than a year without a pet, we adopted a black male cat, Harvey, from Four Footed Friends. Despite a few health issues at the start, he’s been great. Still, cats will be cats and he also was nervous around Will and the two still haven’t made a close connection. And as much as we love Harvey, there’s just something about the energy and unconditional love of a dog that you miss when you don’t have one around for a while. After some hinting around by me and eventually family discussion, we decided it was time to start our search. Our primary goals were to adopt from a shelter, preferably a black dog, and one that could grow up with Will now that he’s quickly approaching 10 years-old.
We started off by looking at the area shelters but there weren’t many dogs to be found that matched what we were looking for. We did eventually put in applications for puppies at Orphans of the Storm and Tiny Cause, but had bad experiences with both. Tiny Cause didn’t bother to get back to us until several days after us contacting them, and Orphans of the Storm adopted out the dog we were going to see, apparently while we were on the way to Kittanning to see it. We were reminded that although animal shelters perform an important service, they often don’t get quality, professional help. I didn’t do the best job of being friendly with the volunteer at Orphans of the Storm so I lost my speaking privileges at shelters going forward.
When leaving Orphans of the Storm, Angela called Four Footed Friends to see if we could come by to see what dogs they had. She got a warm response and was also told that they just got in a litter of eight black lab/golden retriever puppies the day before. We drove to the shelter and were given permission to see the puppies, although we weren’t allowed to interact with them yet because our application was still pending approval. The holdup was Harvey being behind on his vaccines, which was revealed when they called our vet as part of the process.
We had a renewed sense of optimism as soon as we saw the puppies. They were a breed we liked, several of them were black, and they were adorable. Of the puppies we saw, four were black, two were brown and black, and two were blonde. Angela took a liking to one of the black ones in particular, and this would come into play a couple days later when we got to see the litter again.
After getting Harvey his shots we returned to the shelter to have our application officially approved and finally got to play with the puppies. It was chaotic and it was overwhelming for Will especially. We had them separate just the black puppies to make it easier to decide. The same one Angela had her eye on the first time kept returning to her, and is it often happens, the pup (named Snickers) more or less picked us. Although we weren’t expecting to take a puppy home that day, the shelter was ready to move forward and after completing some paperwork, we were once again dog owners. Snickers didn’t stick long for a name and although she couldn’t say why, Clara kept popping up in Angela’s mind as a potential name. Not seeing a good reason to overthink it, we all agreed it was a good choice and went with it.
I’m a little slow in writing this as Clara has already been with us for a little over two weeks. It has been a bit of an adjustment for us, but she’s doing well and ahead of the pace on potty training, leash walking, and doing tricks. She still has accidents, but they’re few and far between and she’s letting us know when she wants to go out. She does the typical puppy stuff like biting, trying to chew on things, and stealing anything that’s not put out of reach to use as a toy, but that was to be expected. She’s not a big fan of the crate, but we’ll get there.
Yesterday we took the fast growing Clara to Rural King for a special dog promotion to support the Indiana County Human Society. She did great, and got lots of love from customers and store employees, as well as a couple bags of free treats and a new toy. She still hasn’t figured out the steps and has somehow secured a spot on our bed at night, but hopefully that’s temporary while we still figure out potty training. Right now I’m getting up with her around 2:30 a.m. on average to take her out, and then Angela gets the 4:30 a.m. outing.
All signs are pointing toward Clara being a wonderful dog for us. She loves playing with Will, and it’s fun to watch them interact with each other. Will is getting the chance to see what bonding with a pet is like, which was one of our hopes when we decided to adopt. It’s had to believe if she’s with us for an average life expectancy, Will will be at least 20 years-old and I’ll be close to retirement. That really puts things in perspective, but I think we’ll just enjoy every moment we have together and let the future take care of itself.
To be continued.
