Thursday, July 28, 2011

Riley's story

So we adopted Riley March 3rd, 2010. At the time I was on a mad hunt for a purebred boxer. I wanted to rescue but I wanted it to be a boxer. Papa had always had boxers and they were his favorites. When I was a kid he raised them and they have always had a special place in our family. I searched for a month. There were a few on Craigslist that I looked at. I set up a few appointments to meet the dogs and the owners, but nothing felt right. Then one night I typed in "boxer for adoption" in the search bar and a picture of a little black and white possibly pitt mix puppy popped up. Hmmm... not a boxer but he is cute. I clicked on the link and the saddest eyes were pretty much attacking my soul. Then I read he was going to be put down Tuesday at 4pm. It was Sunday. Monday morning I called and asked if they would hold him for me. The lady said no, I had until 4pm Tuesday.
Luckily, Chris was off that Tuesday (March 3rd) and we went to look at him. We walked in and I immediately saw why "boxer" brought me to the shelters link. There was the cutest purebred boxer female that was about 6 months old. I played with her about5 minutes and noted that she had been there 2 days and still had 29 days before she would be euthanized. We kept walking past cages and cages of puppys and dogs that were adorable. It was loud. Dogs were barking, music was blaring, inmates were yelling. We finally found "death row" and I almost walked past him. They called him "Ace" or #----- and he looked like he had given up on life. He was skinny even though there was a massive bowl of food in the corner. He was filthy and shaking. I tried to get him to come to me but he didn't have the strength or maybe he didn't have the urge to be loved. I turned to Chris and said he is mine. Chris was shocked. All he had heard for a month was boxer, boxer, boxer and now I wanted a filthy, skinny mutt. "What about the boxer at the beginning? Let's go see her one more time because you really wanted a boxer." I relunctantly said bye to "Ace" or #----- and went back to the boxer. She greeted me body wagging. Nope, no emotions, she was not the one. So we went in the office signed the papers and an inmate brought us the filthy, skinny black and white dog.