Our New Arrival

Tricia Haas
Jul 10, 2017 · 4 min read

This past weekend, my family decided to expand its home to a new member. She weighs about 30 pounds, and her name is April.

April is a 9 month old puppy we adopted from Collin County Animal Shelter on Saturday morning. She’s a much bigger dog than the 10 pound chihuahua/terrier mix we also have. We’re not really sure what breed of dog she is. The shelter called her a “red hound.” To me, she looks like she’s possibly got some heeler in her. The nice lady at Petsmart also mentioned that she looks like she may have some shepherd in her as well. Whatever she is, she’s very sweet, but kind of shy. She has a nervous bladder, and does not appear to be comfortable enough with me and my family yet to take food out of our hands. She’s underweight and has kennel cough. April apparently ran away from her former owner, or perhaps never had one in the first place- we’ll never know.

My daughter and her new puppy on the car ride home.

She has an adorable “sad puppy” face almost all the time, except in this one adorable photo my oldest daughter took of her on the car ride home from the shelter. April looks like she is smiling and thanking my little girl for rescuing her from the shelter. Her former neighbor in the kennel beside her was cute, but very loud, and I think all the noise from next door freaked her out quite a bit. She cowered in her cage every time the other dog barked and looked so sad. We just knew we had to take this poor little puppy home with us.

My 19 year-old son also adopted a ferret from the shelter, who is also a bit scrawny and underweight-looking. Most of the people I’ve told this to so far cringe when I mention ferret. However, we have had ferrets before, and understand how challenging they can be to keep as pets. Our previous ferret had a thing for socks. When we let her out of her cage, she somehow would manage to find dirty socks on the floor somewhere in the house and run off and stash them in a place where we could never find them again. I suspect that if we ever remodel our kitchen, we will find a sock nest from our little Annie underneath the kitchen sink. It’s too soon to tell what this new ferret’s fascination will be, but I can tell you that she is energetic and a little crazy. It’s going to be a fun adventure.

The reason I am telling this heartwarming story is that there were an unbelievable amount of dogs and cats available for adoption at the shelter this past weekend. Trade Days is coming up in McKinney this weekend, and it is always fun to walk along the aisle where all the little puppies and kittens are for sale, yipping and yapping, and waiting to meet their new owners who are willing to fork over hundreds of dollars for a new, pure-bred friend. Sadly, there are plenty of dogs and cats at the Collin County Animal Shelter right now, looking for new homes. This shelter is well-run, and they do the best they can with the resources they have, but they do euthanize at this shelter. When the shelter gets full, the adoption prices go down drastically. We adopted April for $25, and the as-yet-unnamed ferret for $10.

I realize that there are dog rescue groups out there who work with shelters to re-home pets that are in danger of being euthanized due to not being adopted in a timely manner. These groups do great work, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to eliminate the middleman? If you go straight to the source, you can save a dog or cat before it even gets to the rescue group. It might even save you a little bit of money!

Grooming April.

If you are looking for a new dog, consider the whichever animal shelter is close to you. If you don’t find one today that instantly melts your heart and begs you to take her home, keep looking. Eventually, your dog will show up at the shelter and will be waiting for you.

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