Doggy Fever

Greg and I are currently obsessed with dogs. We have fanciful conversations about where to put a dog bed, how to prepare the house, all the things we need to buy. We can pass hours on the internet looking at shelter pages and rescue dogs. Whenever we see a dog on the street we get giddy.

We can't get one until our finances are in slightly better shape, which should resolve in two or three weeks when I start getting paid for my assistantship. That's not a very long time at all, but it feels like FOREVER.

And there are so many dogs to choose from. We have been looking extensively at petfinder, and the sheer number of dogs in need of homes in our area is not only sad, but overwhelming. We love ALL dogs, and just to give you an idea, here is some of what we're trying to decide:

We know we don't want a puppy right now, because eventually (very long-term) we'd like to buy a large-breed (mastiff, St. Bernard, or Newfoundland) purebred puppy, but for a first dog we'd like to get a shelter dog that is already housetrained, and one that is low-energy (we unfortunately don't have a large yard for it to play in). Part of me wants to adopt a senior dog for exactly this reason - but I'd also hate to have a dog that won't be around for very long, and senior dogs tend to have (sometimes expensive) health problems.

Our ultimate dream, as I've said, is to own a very large breed dog. I've seen a few listed on shelter sites, but I'm not sure if they're the best fit for us right now...what on earth would we do with a giant mastiff in our tiny apartment?

I think we would be happy with an average-to-large dog, but the VAST majority of the shelter dogs around here are pittbull or rottweiler mixes. Guess which two breeds we're not allowed to have? I would LOVE to have a pitt - and I grew up with rottweilers, since my neighbors used to breed them. I think either would be perfect, but unfortunately our landlords say no.

There are a few small breed dogs that we love - pugs, corgis, and English bulldogs. But nearly all of the ones I've found have either been too old/sick (pug rescue is a sad place to spend an afternoon) or too expensive.

I've narrowed it down to two local shelters, one in Knightdale and one in Cary, that I've sent applications to. We're waiting to hear back from them. The truth is, at the end of the day, we're not that picky about our dog - we just want one here NOW! It's hard to believe that after waiting so long our dream might actually come true in a few weeks...I really hope we're able to get one sooner rather than later. I never knew that getting a dog would be so stressful!