We met the people who work with Rescue Ranch and their dogs. Nancy, the whippet cross, was skin and bones. It was painful to look at her. She was, indeed, sweet and gentle but after an hour she had barely warmed up to me enough to let me pet her, and she wouldn't go near John for any coaxing or calling. It was not a success. We left without a dog. Again.
Yesterday I spoke to a woman about a dog she was trying to give away, an eight month old labrador/shepherd mix to whom she had developed allergies. Oh my, the dog was cute! But eight months is too young to stay alone for 10 hours a day. That's a puppy, really, and a puppy needs her pack nearby all day. We can't offer that kind of togetherness.
It's discouraging. I have been trying for four months to find a dog at a public shelter, and it hasn't worked out. Now I'm trying private rescue organizations. We're pretty flexible and we'll try to work with any animal that seems to fit our requirements. We certainly tried with Violet (who finally found a permanent home, by the way). We are specific about what kind of dog we're looking for because we know what works best with our lifestyle: an adult animal, medium to large sized, friendly with people, okay with other animals, gentle temperament, not overly protective, and independent.
I think we want a labrador retriever.
My folks always got their dogs from breeders, but I don't want to go that route. There are so many unwanted animals in the world that I want very much to give one of them a second chance. Dog breeding is fine with me, but certain breeds have been overbred for fashionable characteristics until they're grotesque-looking and genetically defective. Not that this is anything new, dogs are available in such wide variety because of the hundreds of years of breeding, but what's happened to cocker spaniels just in my lifetime, for instance, is criminal. Poor bulbous-headed things, they look like space aliens now.
So tonight I contacted Golden Gate Labrador Retriever Rescue. I left a message for one of the rescue volunteers who lives in my city and presumably they'll get back to me. I don't care about color or gender. I do care about whether or not they dig because believe it or not I still cherish the notion that I am a gardener, despite having done very little with my backyard in a year and a half. But an older dog, one at least 2 years old, wouldn't be as inclined to dig or chew, so that could work. And if the dog must dig then he (most of the GGLRR dogs are black males) can have some of the yard, just as Dixie was alloted a large space in our condo's backyard, where he can do what he likes. I'll gate off the garden part. There's room enough for everyone in the backyard.
Including the memory of Dixie.
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