Annie gets new people
Today I confirmed with Annie’s new home that she is indeed going home to them in a couple weeks. It was a bittersweet phone call for me. In this short time I have become very attached to her. She would definitely be easy for me to adopt myself if I had room in my heart. Still, I know it is best for her to go. I know that she needs and deserves a family of her own that has more time and love to give her.
In these past few weeks she has really calmed down. She rests more easily and cuddles with me on the couch every night. She loves getting tummy rubs and she will arch her back and growl happily and wriggle as I rub her. It is clear that she is feeling ohsogood in her body at those moments! I’ll miss her.
I always worry about the mama dogs…will the new family feel the same sense of responsibility that we tend to feel so easily for puppies? Mama dogs are adults, and so come with their own, sometimes strong, personalities. Even the most well meaning person will be confronted with one or more behaviors that they just don’t like in their new dog. It is inevitable. But it is also temporary. With each dog I’ve brought permanently into my family there is this period of distance, where I find myself wondering why I wanted this dog. I don’t feel a particularly strong bond, I don’t feel love really, and the dog is distant and cautious around me and sometimes does things that annoy the hell out of me. But then magically and imperceptibly all that changes. It does change. I will change. And then you look at this animal and see only love in it’s eyes and feel only a deep love back at it. And you look around and realize that the dog has learned what you like it to do and what you don’t like and has changed its behaviors accordingly. It’s weird but true. Love takes time to grow with adult adoptions and I always worry about finding that family or person who has that stick-to-it-ness necessary to ride out that middle time. I hope for Annie this family has that dedication and devotion. I believe they do. She absolutely deserves it and I’ve glimpsed the love she has to offer and it takes my breath away.
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