Sucker

Saturday started like any other day - Soccer games, lunch out in between, and some family bonding time over ice cream. We certainly weren’t planning on getting a dog. Somewhere between our stop at Barnes and Noble and home, we had the brilliant idea of visiting the animal shelter to visit dogs without families. Yes, Mike and I are insane. Yes, we should have realized what was going to happen.
We entered the shelter and were given a tour by the very calculating and manipulative director. And by calculating and manipulative, I mean she was exceedingly kind and immediately began discussing how none of these dogs had homes anymore and were just looking for a family like ours to take them home and play ball. Play ball. Both the kids kept shooting Mike and I these looks that screamed, “Are you hearing this? Do you have any compassion or love in your heart AT ALL? Please, Please, please, can we take one home?” The director and the kids had one agenda, and Mike and I had another. Mike kept saying. “We’re here to look, guys. We’re hear to visit with the doggies, not adopt one.”

We passed by the cats with no problem. No wistful longing to cradle them in our arms or rub their soft fur against our cheeks. We passed by some other barking dogs that were “not for kids.” We were doing great, feeling a little scared of the dogs, even. Then, Queen of Kindness Director took us into the back room and introduced us to an 8 month old puppy named Scout. She let Scout out and he ran right up to us, sat at our feet and snuggled. Then, as if he had been explicitly trained in the art of how-to-get-yourself-adopted-pronto, he rolled over for us to pet his belly. He gently licked the kids’ hands. The kids were in hog heaven. They rubbed his belly, caressed his ears, and crooned things like, “You are the best dog I’ve ever met,” and with sideways glances at us “Do you need a home, buddy? Do ya?”

I'm a total and complete sucker.

So, Scout is currently sleeping in his crate downstairs. He’s a German Shepherd- Rottweiler mix and is pretty much the cutest dog I’ve ever seen. Now, if we could only get him to stop taking giant craps in my house.