Anticipation

Image via Flickr Creative Commons, courtesy of Dave Farmer

After nearly two weeks on the road – some of it work, some of it pleasure – this morning Richard and I are departing Savannah and heading for home. Bubbles began his journey home today, too; I check my watch and imagine that by now Rescue Road Trips has picked up from Keri, his “foster mother” in Alexandria, Louisiana.

To prepare for Bubbles’ arrival and prepare myself to be the best dog owner possible, I’ve just finished reading Cesar Millan’s book, “Cesar’s Way” (a million copies sold!). I’m determined to get this right – and will use every trick and technique I’ve learned from this book to convince this tiny, ten-pound mutt that I — the six-foot-four inch tall human – am his pack leader; I will project all the calm-assertive energy Cesar Millan recommends to demonstrate that I am in charge.

To get a leg up on the dog, I make a call to Bubbles’ adoption coordinator and foster “mom,” Keri, who happens to head the Central Louisiana Humane Society. I ask what it means, exactly, that the dog’s profile says he’s “crate trained.”

“He doesn’t necessarily want to sleep in the crate,” Keri says, “but with seven other dogs in the home I have to do it to maintain some order. He’d much prefer to be in the bed with you.”

I add “crate” to my growing shopping list, even as I wonder whether Richard or I will be the first to invite the dog onto the bed.

“Choose a good quality puppy food from your local pet store,” Keri continues. “Blue Buffalo or Wellness Natural are both good. My favorite – if I could afford it – is Flint River Ranch. Anything other than grocery store dog food should be fine; I can’t stand when people give their animals “Pedigree” because it’s all dyes and fillers. It’s junk food, not true nutrition.”

“I’m really curious about the dog’s history,” I say. “I’d love to know where he came from, and anything you can tell me about his early life.”

“Well,” Keri begins, “I was at a birthday party and Jodie – one of the moms — showed us photos of a litter of four puppies she had that she said had to go ASAP – but she didn’t want just anybody to get them. We went to her place to pick them up and ended up finding three other emaciated puppies on the roadside along the way. But the litter Bubbles came from was always healthy and well-cared for. You see, here in the south, people think that as soon as the puppies are feeding on their own – at, like, a month old — that it’s time for them to BE on their own. And people will throw a puppy at the first person that wants one. And I’m talking about puppies that are only four or five weeks old; they just throw them outside into the yard – even the ones who are that little.  If it hadn’t been for Jodie those pups would have been fished out to anybody and just thrown outside. But this litter was intercepted and was always protected and healthy.”

“Bubbles was ID’d on the website as a long hair Chihuahua,” I said, “crossed with a Jack Russell terrier; is that your best guess or do you know anything about the breeds of his parents?”

“No – that’s a guess. They were calling them ‘pug mixes’, but not a single puppy had any pug characteristics. Guppy and Chunky went to the same family – they were the same color as Bubbles but much larger – and Joey – the little one — looked just like a toy fox terrier. Bubbles was raised with kids of all ages from two years old on up.”

It also sounds to me that the kids named all the pups.

“He’s young and he’s a very smart,” Keri continues. “He’s a very clean little guy and you shouldn’t have any problems transitioning him over. He loves people and he’ll love to sleep in the bed — he actually prefers people to other dogs. He plays well with dogs, but he definitely has that little dog syndrome where he thinks he’s the biggest one; at the dog park he will run and play with everyone but if another dog tries to tell him anything he acts like the biggest dog in the park; he thinks one little bark is supposed to make that Rottweiler be submissive. He really is a funny little guy; he’s not afraid of anything, he doesn’t make a fuss in his kennel. Oh – and he loves going to PetSmart.”

This is something I hadn’t considered: a dog who loves to go shopping.