We weren’t sure how long we would wait before we got another dog after Max died. We just told ourselves that we would get one when we feel ready. Obviously, we can not and will never be able to replace Maximus. However, we still had a large void in our lives (and the house) after he died. We missed the presence of a large dog in the house.
So we did some thinking and some research (well, my husband did research) and we decided we wanted a lab. At first we thought we wanted a puppy. But the more we thought about it, the more we decided that a puppy is a LOT of work. So then we made the decision to adopt a 1-2 year old lab. A BLACK lab. Did you know that black labs (and black dogs in general) have the highest euthanasia rate out of any other dog? People tend to want the yellow and chocolate labs instead of the black ones. There's actually a 'black dog awareness day'. Let me tell you…the black ones are just as cute!!!
Meet Watson:
We seen him on the website of the lab rescue organization we wanted to support, and read his profile. It said he was good with small dogs and cats. Perfect for our household! We looked at other dogs, but we kept coming back to his page. So on Friday we made an appointment with the lab rescue place and went to meet him. He was so excited. He played, showed us his skills (he knows ‘sit’ ‘shake’ ‘up’ ‘down’ and ‘no’). He played, ran through an obstacle course, fetched and generally impressed us (show off). He’s a very smart dog. We decided right then and there that we wanted him. The lab rescue place set up a home visit at our house on Saturday and she came by with Watson at 1:30. I had asked the day before what they particularly look for at home visits and she said mostly outside issues…gates and fences that can be unlocked, pushed through, jumped over, etc. So Friday night we put an additional latch on our gate out back, just in case. Watson would never be left back there unattended, but still. We didn’t want that to be the reason why we didn’t get our dog.
We also went out on Friday and got an extra large kennel for him. We put it in front of our front door that we NEVER use. That way it’s out of the way and he has his own little area. We bought toys. A baby gate. Bedding for his kennel. A new pillow bed for the living room. It was an expensive Friday.
Watson and his person came on Saturday at 1:30. We did the initial introduction between he and Hannah outside by the tennis court. It went pretty much how we expected it to. Hannah is a Chihuahua. Enough said. She is very possessive of us and she likes her space. She LOVED Max, but Max was already in the house when she came along. Now the tables have turned. So she showed her teeth a few times at Watson, but within a few minutes, she was trotting just a few feet away from him and they were sniffing the same things, etc.
So she’ll get used to him. Thankfully he’s pretty mellow around her and doesn’t antagonize her at all. He’s more afraid of Howie, our orange kitty. Howie hated Max and now Howie hates Watson. Oh well. They keep their distance. The other two cats haven’t even flinched with Watson around.
All went well, we ‘passed’ the home visit, signed the papers and Vader was ours. Oh yeah, his name was Vader. We changed it to Watson. He wasn’t even answering to Vader, so I didn’t feel bad about changing it. He’s already answering to Watson, so that’s good. How did we come up with Watson? We were sitting in the living room and just tossing names out there and then we started thinking of TV shows and characters. "Sherlock!" "Holmes!" "Watson!". And Watson was the one. We had it down between 'Sam' and 'Watson', but we thought Sam was too popular. And I didn't want to call him 'Sammy' which I knew I would. So I call him Watson. And Wigglebutt (when his tail wags his whole back end wiggles, it's adorable).
After we got him Saturday the first thing we did was take him to Long Leash on Life. They have a pet wash service there that is very reasonable. Basically, you do the labor, but they supply everything else and do the cleanup. He wasn’t too fond of it, but he cooperated. He did NOT like the blow dryer though (it was loud). So we (and I say ‘we’, but I actually mean my husband because I just stood back and let him do all the work) just let him shake himself out and wiped him down really good with towels. I have a feeling we’ll be frequenting the Pet Wash with Watson at least once a month.
I felt kind of bad taking him to get a bath in a strange place right away, but it was necessary. He was dusty.
But look how pretty and shiny he turned out:
Then we just hung out at home and let him get more familiar with his new home. He’s a good eater and a very good sleeper. He didn’t make a peep in his kennel all night. Amazing!
He’s just a sweet dog. I think he’s happy to be in a home again. His previous owners had another kid or something and gave him up. Grrrrr….I hate people. You don’t want to get me started. But you know what? Their loss is our gain.
We do have some work to do with him though. He is a leash puller, so we’re working on that right now. And we can’t really let him out of our sight yet at home. He tried lifting his leg a couple of times on various things INSIDE the house (we stopped him). It’s a marking thing. And like the woman that’s been working with him said, he knows how to be a house dog, he just needs to remember. We think he had been in the shelter for a little over a month. Dogs can easily forget, but they can also easily remember.
Overall he's doing really well. I think he likes us.
Oh, and just because we are 'those' Chihuahua people, here's what we did to our poor Hannah once we seen Star Wars gear at Petco:
We left it on just long enough to get the picture, ha ha. Poor thing. She's had a rough couple of days.
