March 12, 2011
Doggie Diary III
The weather on the Monday that I first went to see Mercedes was beautiful – mid 50′s and sunny and dry, something we Portlanders had not seen in a long time! But by the following Wednesday the weather had turned nasty…. bitter cold with overnights in the teens with rain, snow, ice, and sleet in the forecast. The weathermen did not lie. We had all of the above on Wednesday and Wednesday night; it started to clear a little by Thursday morning. Thursday was the day the I could go and formally adopt Mercedes. On my way across town, the roads were clear but I ran into ice, snow, rain, sleet and a hail. Just a little bit of everything, not enough of anything to make a big road hazard.
I was really excited to get her and didn’t realize how long the process would take. I had to go through an interview process where we went over all of her paperwork. Since she was a ‘surrender’ the previous owner had filled out 6 pages of forms which we needed to go over. Part way through reading these surrender papers, I started to cry while thinking, “How could anyone give up this sweet girl?” I was anxious to get her and take her home and start her new life with me, so I stopped reading so carefully and just glanced over the remainder of the form.
After they checked my Drivers License Number, I was then approved to go to the cashier and pay for her. I brought the receipt back and they went to get her ~ after waiting for an available kennel attendant. This was about a 10 -15 minute wait. Then my little ball of white fluff finally arrived in the arms of a caring attendant. She attempted to locate Mercedes microchip and when she couldn’t locate it, she took her away again (more waiting) to insert another one. Then more time to go over that paperwork!
Since it was cold outside, I brought a little sweater for her to wear in the car home. Then we put her seatbelt harness on her and the attendant carried her out to the car. They are very careful during this phase of the adoption process because I guess that they have had dogs bolt before they were put securely into the new adopters vehicles. We put Mercedes into her seat belt in the front seat and the attendant held onto her while I went around to open my door and got into the car and closed my door. Then Mercedes door was shut and we were off on our way!
Mercedes loves to ride in the car and I don’t think that she took her eyes off of me for more than a few seconds on the ride home. I took her outside on the leash so she would know where to go. She followed me around the house for the rest of the day and just kept watching me. She adjusted Ok that first day and even ate from her cute little dishes.
She whimpered a little bit at bed time, but I knew that she was fine and just had to ignore her until she settled down a few minutes later.
She has settled into our routine and is getting used to me and is really showing her cute, impish personality.
jj said,
March 12, 2011 at 4:41 pm
How very sweet. Congratulations. A new member to the family!