Last night I got home from the airport, walked in the door, sat down on the floor and Zippy looked at his daddy and then almost skipped over to me and gave me a big fat doggie kiss on the face. He was very in tune with his daddy and kept looking to him for reassurance. He is a submissive doggie but incredibly curious. He sniffs around the house and then looks up to make sure you are in the same room. Of course it could be that he’s nervous since it’s his first time away from the SPCA.

We went for a walk around the neighborhood and met Sam, a HUGE golden around the corner. Zippy acted pretty disinterested but eventually was getting caught up under Sam’s fuzzy feet and Sam was very calm and good with the little guy.

When we put him in his crate, he barked and whined for 45 minutes straight and finally Rob could take no more. We went into the living room, pulled the futon cushion off the futon, threw it on the floor by the crate and slept in the living room, next to the crate. I think Rob may have even slept with his fingers in the cage. The dog quieted down immediately when we came back in the living room and slept through the entire night without waking up. I was very impressed by his ability to hold it for that long but he’s a little trooper.

Countdown time for Zippy! I got the pictures back and – of course – the rocket scientists at Sam’s club didn’t put the pictures on disk like I asked them to. I suppose that’s why they are working at Sam’s and not actual rocket scientists. I am highly disappointed that I can’t e-mail pictures of him to Genevieve.

We have adopted a dog. We started talking about getting a mutt last year and decided that in the spring we should do it. When spring came along, we enthusiastically started visiting the local shelter looking to spring and inmate. We looked at many poor little guys who had no home, there were times it was too much for Rob but we were patiently waiting for a little guy who ‘felt right’. Just like looking for a house, when we see the right dog we will know.

We have a friend, Danelle, at the shelter and we told her what our criteria was so she would show us happy little guys from time to time and keep her eyes peeled for us.

I have a total lack of opinion on the breed, but I have 2 very solid points I will not stray from
I can’t have a long haired dog
I need a running companion

Rob likes the pitt bulls and they fit my criteria so I started the research. We decided that if we were to get a pitt we needed to get a puppy to make sure he was not trained to be aggressive and had been properly socialized. Then we decided that we don’t have the time to give a puppy so we sadly disregarded our search for a pitt and set our criteria for anybody who is 6 months or older.

One day Danelle told us about a little guy, she took us to the area where the dogs are kept before they are put up for adoption. There was a little pitt/lab mix that was found when he was approx 2-3 months old, his name is E.J. He had kennel cough and was in doggie rehab but he was getting ready to go up for adoption. Danelle knew the doggie and thought he would be a good match for us and took us to see the little nipper.

We fell in love with E.J.. He was so cute and so small! We loved him but also realized we could not commit to the time needed to take care of a puppy. Sadly we left and were secretly jealous of whoever would wind up with him.

After seeing little EJ, Rob decided he couldn't take it anymore. Seeing the doggies up for adoption and not bringing one home was too much for him and that was his last trip to the SPCA.

Almost 2 months passed since I went back to the SPCA. In those 2 months, I got a job offer and would be able to flex my hours and work from home. I made arrangements to have 11 days off between jobs and we decided now is the time to get the dog.

I took my brother with me to the SPCA and practically jumped out of my skin when I saw E.J. sharing a cage with another mutt. He had grown and was about 5 ½ months old. I grabbed Danelle and asked her why he was not adopted. She looked at his folder and said there was an application in on him. Danelle pulled the application and gave it a quick once over and murmured hmmm that’s good, hmmm that’s bad as she reviewed their answers. I begged for one day so I can talk with Rob about getting EJ and she said we would be fine if we turned in our application the next day.

I grabbed an application and raced home to tell Rob that we were MEANT to have little E.J. It was FATE that he was not adopted and he HAD to come home with us and we NEEDED to fill out the application TODAY. We agreed that little EJ needed to be ours and we spent 2 days working on our application with the type of care parents give to their baby adoption paperwork. I pulled out my doggie books to make sure I answered all the questions correctly. I listed my friend at the SPCA as a dog reference and thought for sure she was my ‘shoe in’.

We dropped off the application almost as soon as they opened on Sunday and took little EJ outside to spend more time with him. I asked the volunteer why EJ hadn’t been adopted. He thought people were intimidated by the pitt bull in him but he thought EJ was one of the best doggies in there and he was surprised he had not been adopted.

The signs at the shelter say it takes 2-7 days for the adoption process and to be patient. Monday rolled around and no call from them. (they are closed on Mondays’ but that’s no excuse) Tuesday came and I was convinced we were not going to get him since they had been open for about 2 hours and they hadn’t called yet when my phone rang at work……
Rob told me we got the dog!!!!!! I yelped and leapt around my office.

We went out last night and bought $200 of doggie supplies in preparation for our new little bundle of joy. I spent $70 on dog/puppy training books and have speed read almost all of them. Little Zippy comes home on Sunday and that day can’t come soon enough. I’m going to be in Raleigh all weekend and that will make the time go by faster.

Zippy, that’s E.J.s new name. We spent a whole afternoon sitting outside in our beach chairs in the shade of the trees in the backyard and thought of names. Luscious, Flasto, Pizza Face, you name it and we thought about it. We thought about if for daaaaaaaaaays and think Zippy is the best name. Zippy, slippy, hopefully not nippy, Zipp a dee doo da, Zipperhead. This poor little guy has more nicknames then we can count and he’s not even home with us yet!

I spent an evening puppy proofing the living room and kitchen, I moved everything that I didn’t want damaged above puppy nose reach. We got bitter apple but Zippy is teething and I strongly believe a dog determined to chew on your dvd’s will do it even if it tastes like bitter apple.

We took picture of him yesterday when we wasn’t chewing on the camera. I can’t wait to get them tonight.