In’s & Out’s of the Thaden Family

From what many people we work with think, we actually did get a dog. For those who don’t know the story here goes:

Margaret received a call from a lady who volunteers at the local Humane Society on Monday. We’ll call her Cardinal, so Cardinal called telling Margaret all about this dog and how she’s been taking care of him. She tells her how laid back, loving, and obedient this dog is, so of course Margaret instant messaged immediately me telling me all about this dog and asks if she can have it. Now, she’s been wanting a dog for quite some time. It really hit home when she was off of work for a week and there was no one at the house for her to talk to. Anyway, she received all the paperwork by email and fills out everything to get the adoption process going. I would also like to announce that we saved him from being destroyed. He was on a short list with 4 other dogs to be the euthanized by this weekend.

Fast forward to Thursday. Everything was set up for us to meet our soon to be new dog. His name is Lucas by the way and he’s part Husky, Labrador, and Border Collie (quite a combination huh?). So we met him that morning and Cardinal was telling us stories and even got choked up a few times, because she bonded with the dog (no not in that way) and it was a great meeting.

Friday was when the fit hit the shan. A lady from the shelter called confirming our adoption of Lucas for Saturday (today) around noon. Then all of a sudden around five o’clock Cardinal calls Margaret, in tears, saying she’s having separation anxiety and that we couldn’t have the dog. Margaret kept her cool and gave this woman down the road. Told her to shut up even amidst this woman’s cries (so proud of her, anger management is really paying off). After that call Margaret was pissed and disappointed all at once. She called the manager and had to leave a message. She got a hold of another volunteer and was grilling her if this was the way the Humane Society ran. Again, she kept her cool and didn’t swear once. This other volunteer said she would find out some answers and get someone to call her back. Some lady called Margaret back saying she was a manager and told her that both Cardinal and the dog were having separation anxiety and that we couldn’t have him. Margaret had to give this woman down the road. She was blowing up people left and right.

Margaret kept me informed on what all was happening and she was very upset by the whole ordeal. I mean really, who says you can adopt a dog, lets you meet it, and then says “sorry, you can’t have it?”

I get home and Margaret is already in bed. She wasn’t a happy camper. I talked to her about the situation for a bit, but not enough to get her upset all over again. She had a restless night’s sleep and got up very early (3am I think). I did my best this morning to console her and she opened up a bit more about the situation over breakfast. I even made her chuckle a bit with a smile.

It was close to 11 this morning when Margaret received a call from the actual manager. She proceeded to tell Margaret that she was the only manager and that Cardinal overstepped her authority. She said basically that all the drama that occurred shouldn’t have and that Cardinal will no longer be a volunteer anymore.

From that point on we got Lucas, took him to Pet Smart for a royal dog cleaning, teeth brushing, and nail manicurin’. It was a three hour cleaning, but I wanted to make sure we got the stench of dog kennel off of him. During that time we got a kennel, dog bed, dog harness, dog food, couple of toys, bowls, collar, treats, and a leash. Got it all set up and we were ready for him.

Got him home, took him for a potty walk, and then relaxed. He’s pooped twice today and pee’d a zillion times. Not to mention marking his territory all over the damned place. We keep a belly band on him while he’s in the house to he won’t mark his territory. Not once has he kicked his leg up.

This next Friday his nuts are coming off, so he’ll be even more relaxed. So far though everything is going great.

Tags: daily blah, family & friends