the first night

when i decided to adopt a dog, i had this image fixed in my mind.  i heard "so happy together" playing over a montage of me and my new dog running on the beach, playing frisbee, hanging out in dog parks... it was going to be perfect!  joe and i started looking online and putting in applications at different shelters on petfinder.  we didn't have much luck... many of the dogs were either already adopted, or we just didn't get responses back from the shelters, or, in one case, i got told that i'm a neglegent pet owner because i don't have my five cats vaccinated yearly.  they're inside cats!  why would i vaccinate them if they never leave the house?  anyway, we finally physically went to a shelter near our house that a friend of joe's recommended.

wally was the second dog we met at this shelter, and we absolutely fell in love with him.  a few days later, i was driving home from the shelter with my new shaggy, smelly dog!

looking back, i really should have waited until a weekend to pick him up from the shelter.  picking him up on a work night wasn't the best thing to do since we wouldn't be able to spend a lot of time together before going to bed.  i had him for a couple of hours before i was ready to go to bed.  i figured that he was crate trained since he came from a shelter... i was very wrong.

i started to put him into his crate.  i pulled him a little by his collar to guide him into his crate.  he did NOT like that.  the first night i had him home, my dog snapped and bit me.  it wasn't just a scared bite, either.  he bit me on my leg and on my arm when i tried to push him off my leg.  i was bleeding and bruised, and before me stood this tiny, shaggy, pissed off dog.  and the most confusing thing to me was that five seconds after it happened, he was back to sitting near me and wanting to be petted.

i was actually pretty traumatized by the whole thing.  i never owned an animal who wanted to hurt me before.  i washed my arm and put wally in the bathroom for the night, then tried to sleep in my room.  it was impossible.  every time i heard a noise, i woke with a start.  my arm and leg hurt every time i moved them.  and i was seriously doubting bringing an adult dog from a shelter into my home.  he hurt me, really hurt me... and i had five cats to worry about. 

the next day, i decided that i wasn't going to give up on wally.  i thought, what if everyone gave up on the abused and/or tempermental kids that happened?  the human race would just die out.  so i decided i was going to hunker down and work hard with him to make him more comfortable with me, to trust me, and most of all, recognize me as the pack leader.