Shelter Dogs

A few weeks ago I started volunteering at Indianapolis Animal Care and Control.  A couple hours a week I take out dogs that otherwise spend entire days in their kennels.   It's pretty rewarding, more so than at other shelters were dogs are sometimes being walked regularly.  At IACC these animals really need your attention.

Anyway, proud of what happened today.
A family came in looking for a puppy.  They were disappointed to realize none are on the adoption floor at the moment, were literally walking out when I stopped them.  Told them they should really take a look at the dog I was walking at the time.  Delilah, a 9-month-old coon mix, had shown me love outside.  Is very gentle, easy going; she didn't bark the entire time I was there even though I passed her kennel and didn't take her out for a while. I recommended they take a look at her.  They did. And long story short, she was adopted.

It brings me back to when our family adopted Daisy:
My mom, younger sister, and I went to a local shelter with the stipulation no puppies, no males, no pitbulls (which I now realize is silly).  We didn't see any dogs we liked.  Someone working at the shelter told us we should really take a look at Daisy, and we fell in love.  We had passed up her cage, as a surprising number of people do when it comes to black dogs.  Nearly ten years later she's still part of our family.

Happy I could help someone else the way we were helped years ago.

Just Make Me Feel Loved

Everyone blogs for different reasons.  I blog to remember.  In this case, I want to remember this weekend.  The second anniversary of Spencer and I meeting.

Our anniversary falls on Valentine's Day.  I tell Spencer that's a good thing, that it means he can get the lovey stuff out of the way all on one day of the year.  Spencer would probably argue differently, say that it just puts added pressure on the day and his need to pull out all the stops.  Either way.  My requirement:  you don't necessarily have to buy my anything, just make me feel loved.   It's what I told him all week as he moped around the house saying he didn't know what to get me.

Friday came.  I surprised Spencer with a book he's been wanting.  And while it didn't make it through the mail in time, custom framed the poster from the event where we met.

Not knowing exactly what to get me, he just got me everything:
From flowers, to a bottle of Pink Moscato Champaign ('because we drank this the night we met), to chocolates and a singing monkey from CVS (a nod to this SNL skit).  He created a card for me: a sketch of me holding a teddy bear (because a coworker got similar fan mail recently).  He addressed Valentine card's as though they were from one cat to another, from our dog to one of the cats, etc. AND on top of all that, created a slideshow, complete with music and costume changes. He projected up onto our wall and we danced as it played.

Indeed, I did feel loved.  I do feel loved.  Really loved.

(The other side to this, I feel guilty.  That I put so many expectations, so much pressure on one single day.  That Spencer felt the pressure, likely felt like he had to go out all.  I feel awful that earlier in the day I had been crying to myself because I hadn't been paraded with love yet. But that's another blog post for another time, it's 2:30 pm and this morning reporter needs to go to bed)

Top Left:  Bacon magnet I put on our bathroom mirror for Spencer Vday morning.  He added the other quip.
The rest: gifts from Spee.