Full circle

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UPDATE:

We spend over an hour at the shelter this evening. Kodi was a big hit but I found out that he’s an escape artist. He’s only been at the shelter since Tuesday and has twice unlocked the gate via a latch and ended up running up the highway. As I said to Hawk, as wonderful a dog as he is, that’s not a tragedy I want to buy into.

We saw Lucy again and she definitely has a hip problem. She walks as though she has a weight on her lower back. I think it’s dysplasia but I’m not a vet. On Tuesday I thought maybe she was stiff or it was connected to the diarrhea she’d had upon intake. I asked the adoption specialist and she said it’s common in the breed (of course) and that she would have the vet check her out. Again, I don’t want to fall for a dog and have to turn around and sink thousands of dollars into her for a hip replacement (or she may have a worse problem than that; maybe she was hit by a car or something).

Koala’s brother Malachai (yeah, I know; Children of the Corn) has been adopted and I don’t think Koala will have trouble finding a home. While the kids played with Lucy and Hawk observed her (in his medical opinion, she definitely has a problem), I spoke to the adoption specialist. I said “Kodi was what we’d been looking for. An older, large dog, housebroken and good with children. Are there any dogs you recommend?” Right away she said, “Casey.“

I said, “Casey was the whole reason I came down on Tuesday but on her cage it says she’s part pit.”

The adoption specialist said, “Casey was brought in with three pit bulls. The owners were moving. Since we couldn’t be sure she wasn’t part pit, we wrote it down.” She got out Casey’s surrender sheet. It says “Lab” for breed and then “mix.” In a different pen and writing, there’s a small note that says “pit bulls +3″ — which she said was a reminder that Casey had been from a pit bull home. “At the time of intake,” she said, “we couldn’t be sure that there wasn’t any pit in her and so we had it on her cage sheet just in case.” She added, “She’s a sweet thing. She doesn’t look like a pit to me at all. Our veterinarian said in his opinion there’s no pit about her. He thinks the mix is spaniel, based on her size, ears and coat.”

So we asked to meet Casey. And meet her we did. Zoe tried to put a tug toy around her neck. She backed up, head up, tail up but not wanting Zoe to put the toy on her. She enjoyed sniffing Holden and Zoe. The one she really loved was Hawk. She jumped up beside him and snuggled u. Then we got her back on the floor after some scratches and she walked around, sniffed, etc. Her body language was good: wagging tail, perky ears (sometimes flat, like when Zoe wanted to put the toy on her). She walked around behind me (I was on the floor) and snuggled up under my arm and put her head back and against my chest and leaned. I said, “Oh you know just what to do, don’t you?” By the time I went out and told the adoption specialist, “We like Casey,” she was playful and comfortable. She’s narrow in the body, small with a perfect lab shape to her head and a long snout. I do not believe there’s a drop of pit in her (if I did, she wouldn’t be coming home with us). I discussed it more with the adoption specialist. She said they’ll ask the vet to do a once-over and if he maintains there’s no pit in her, they’ll make a note to the forms and declare that she is not part pit at all.

So in the end we made a full circle back to the dog who caught our eyes on Sunday night. We pick her up tomorrow.

We will be changing her name since she didn’t even perk up her ears to “Casey.” We have a name pretty well picked and I’ll announce it when we get her home tomorrow.

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