Introducing...

...yeah, I don't have a name for her yet. Any suggestions?

She's smelly and she's horny, but she's mine. Waiting for the kennel cough to go away before she's spayed. Last night I adopted this lovely four-year-old cocker spaniel from a foster agency. So far, so good. She has a lot of energy, but she is very well-behaved. Doesn't jump on furniture, explores with her nose, not her mouth, totally house broken, stays quiet in the morning until I wake up, can sit, stay, lay down and stand on her hind legs when she wants to see what's going on on my table.

I haven't posted in a while because the process of finding a dog was really rough...at times heartbreaking. I just needed to protect myself a little bit because I was feeling really raw. Rarely do I think events in my life are worthy of writing down. I'm often telling my friends, "you should write a book," but I don't think I have chapters for my own book. This experience of adopting a dog is worthy of a chapter. Not only for the heartbreak, but for the sheer volume of crazy people I had to encounter.

The dog I referenced in my last post ended up not working out...to say the least. I still have the bite mark on my hand to prove it. He hadn't had a lick of training and the woman who was taking him on wasn't helping. I was willing to work with him up until he tried to attack my face...while lying in the submissive position! Her response...petting him and saying "that's okay, that's okay." Good luck finding a home for that multiple personality dog.

I then tried the shelter. Found the best Pomeranian with jacked up teeth. Beautiful color, as gentle as a lamb. Very small dog, but didn't have that annoying yelp bark. Actually barely barked at all. Came back the next day at the start of the adoption time and found out that he had already been adopted by a woman who got there four hours before adoptions began. How was that allowed to happen? I cried myself to sleep that night.

The foster agency that had my cutie were run by fanatics who cannot relate to other humans nearly as well as they relate to animals. One of them was fostering 14 cats and a dog. Can you imagine having 14 cats in a New York apartment on the Upper West Side? Scary! Luckily, the woman who was fostering my dog was pretty normal, and I now have a dogsitter when I go out of town. But boy, dealing with the people who ran the agency was mind-blowing.

I'm skimming...but you get the idea. It was a bit of an emotional roller coaster...luckily I have a lot of experience in that. It was worth it, though. My dog is great. We bonded almost immediately. She's laying on the floor by my feet right now...kicking her legs and snoring while she sleeps. I gotta go find a local vet and pet store and give her a bath. I also have to give her a name. I knew I was going to name it "Jake" if it was a boy...after Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain, of course...but I have no idea what girl name I should give her. Please help.