National Pet Day: Meet Syd
Happy National Pet Day! This is the first time this day has been happy for me for awhile. The reason for the joy: Syd. I'm thrilled to announce this new family member and wanted to write about the path it took for him to come to us.
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| Photo cred: Leia Anderson |
When my fur baby of eighteen years passed away, both Jason and I agreed that we didn't want to jump right into having another dog. About a year ago though, I started missing having a dog and just really felt an emptiness in not having a pet. Jason wasn't quite there though and for many good reasons. Dogs can be expensive and it's another thing to add to our routine, and life with an older dog hadn't been much fun the last few years.
Last fall, I had really bad doggo blues so I started doing some pet sitting and that helped. I also started just looking into puppies and different breeders. I knew I wanted another Pekingese or similar like a Shih Tzu or Japanese Chin or something small and just a good companion animal. We had a nightmare experience with a rescued Peke that I got from a shelter in Miami so I was very hesitant to do that again. However, the Peke puppies I was finding ranged in price from about $800-$2,500. That's a bit steep- and over and over I kept seeing friends with puppies bemoaning how hard housebreaking is and just how much chaos they bring with them. I also couldn't find a reputable breeder in the state of Florida and I was wary to go after an expensive dog sight unseen. When my buddy Jerry got a fabulous Shih Tzu from a shelter, that really opened me up to the idea of possibly attempting that route again.
I began stalking Petfinder.com and PetTango.com and joined several rescue groups on Facebook. For months I saw nothing that fit my list of "must haves". I knew the only way to get Jason onboard and also just have a good experience for us and the dog was for the adopted animal to match the following criteria: adult 4-5 years old, good with children, under 15 lbs, must have a calm demeanor, must not have health issues, prefer Pekingese but open to other small dogs. It seems like a doable list, but among the rescues, I struck out over and over again.
Finally in January, Jason began to come around to the idea of adopting another dog and gave his support to my looking. I joined yet another Facebook rescue page, this one dedicated to Pekingeses internationally. The end of February, a cute little white Peke's profile popped up on the page. He hit everything on my list, but was way up in the panhandle, a 7 hour drive. It felt a little like the mishap that had happened before, but this dog's face just wouldn't get out of my head. I had to inquire and it took a few days and many emails but they approved my application and we started planning my trip up.
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| The picture from the rescue website |
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| Yep, he's coming home with me! |
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| For most of the seven hour ride, he either slept or sat and smiled at me. |
Easter weekend, I made the 14 hour round trip up to meet and check out Syd. Jason made me promise that if he seemed sickly or something was just off, that I would walk away. Thankfully, everything seemed legit and I was able to bring Syd home that day. What a delightful Easter morning surprise he was!
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| The Easter Doggy |
To wrap this up, I have been shy of rescues because of what happened with Einstein and the deception on that "rescue"'s part and the sorrow of having to put that dear old fellow down after just two weeks. My interaction with the SaveUnderdogs.com organization was so very different and positive. Syd is everything we wanted in a pet and more. He is sweetness personified and even cuter than his pictures. I'm so glad we ended up going the rescue route and I would encourage anyone considering a pet to do the same. It may take a little longer and even be a little frustrating, but it is very worth it!
