I took my Uncle Don Woods to the Humane Shelter in Warsaw today and let him pick out a dog. His little dog Otis died a few months ago and Uncle Don has been lonely (he's in his 80s) and just wanted another dog. So they took us to a room and I said that I looked on the Internet last night and we wanted to look at Rocko, Ritchie and Jenny.
Rocko was first. He was a beagle mix, 2 years old, and he came charging in that room and was licking Uncle Don's face, ears and head like crazy. Mom and I just kept laughing. He had to be a mix of beagle, pit bull, or boxer, he was huge and strong and very excited. I told the girl, I don't think this one will work, he'd probably knock him down.
So she said OK and came in with Ritchie who is a mix of Terrier and Dachshund and he's already fixed. He came to let me pet him, mom pet him, and went straight over to Uncle Don and sat right beside him. It was so cute. Instant best friends, made me choke up a little. He said yep this is him, he's coming home with me!
The girl told me that when she came back to the gate with Jenny, the little black Chihuahua, she took it right back in the kennel. She said one look at Uncle Don and Ritchie and she just knew they were meant for each other. They had found him in Nappanee running loose and nobody asked for him so they brought him to Warsaw. He's 3 years old and the most pleasant dog.
I signed all the adoption papers, etc. And when I went out to the car, there was Uncle Don in the back seat with Ritchie laying on his lap so content. That dog never moved all the way home and when we left at 8 p.m. We never knew how his bark sounded. He just laid down on the end of the couch and rested.
Those girls out there at the shelter were such nice people. I didn't know that they micro-chipped the dogs for you, but they sure do! I didn't know what they'd do because of Uncle Don's age, but I told them if anything happened to him, I promised him I'd take his dog if he got one. They didn't know if he was house broken, but he walked to the kitchen door which goes out to a fenced-in back yard and went outside and pottied and jumped on the screen door when he wanted back in.
I told Uncle Don he was just blessed today and he wasn't alone anymore, he now has another buddy. He was smiling from big ear to big ear, ha, and he said, "Yep he'll probably be sleeping right on the end of my bed tonight."
I got a call from Uncle Don this morning and right on the end of the bed sleeping last night was Ritchie, ha! He got him up at 3 a.m. to go outside and potty and came right back in and went back to sleep on the bed. What a wonderful pair!
I just wanted to share that story with you for some reason, of Ritchie, Uncle Don's new buddy.
