Fun with effects. . .

The first photo below was taken by the Stafford Animal Shelter‘s excellent photographer and Animal Care Technician, Yvonne Venturino. The rest I shot as soon as we got home. There will be more soon.

I had passed by Dibs on the Web and in some of my walkthroughs at the Stafford, then I met her yesterday when I was there with my friend Carole who adopted a sweet black Lab mix, now named Pepper. We were walking Pepper to get to know her, and a volunteer (Dale) was walking with Dibs some distance away. I thought she looked like a very handsome Boxer mix who I hadn’t seen on the Web site. When I actually met her, Dibs was likable off the bat, but I needed to sleep on the idea of adopting her. Today I went back to spend more time with her. She was listed as a Pit Bull Terrier mix, but now that I have seen her with fresh eyes, she looks like she has Boxer in her to me. I think I must have missed really seeing her and considering her before because she reminded me of Etta and that was a little hard, even though Etta made me a huge fan of Terriers. But this dog is such a winner.

I am delighted that I was able to find a great dog at the Stafford Animal Shelter here in Livingston. Adopt local! And it is such a terrific shelter. Everyone at the shelter gave me helpful information, delivered with affection and respect for this dog. Dibs had been there a while for reasons that mystify me because she is such a fine animal, so they got to know her well. I am grateful for how they cared for her and kept her so healthy and saw to it that she maintained her great disposition despite her long time without a family. She is smart, sweet, responsive to commands, playful, and yet mellow and calm. Exactly as they had experienced her and described her. She was completely cool about riding in the car, and took being left in the car for a few minutes while I checked my mail box at the Post Office in stride (although she kept her eye on the P. O. entrance).

It’s especially nice that Carole and I adopted within a day of each other because we had each lost a beloved elderly canine companion within half an hour of each other this past summer—her Sadie and my Etta. I have to say that having Dibs these past few hours heightens rather than removes my sense of the loss; I wish they could all be here. But Dibs is her very own unique self (even if she looks a bit like Etta and Miles mixed together), and I am excited about getting to know her.

And now, I am going to walk the dog! What a pleasure to be able to say that.

For your adoption possibilities, see the Adopt Me! page at the Stafford Animal Shelter Website.
In the interest of full disclosure, I set up the Shelter’s Web site. (I was a fan and adopter before that.) But that is not why I like linking to it—they are regularly updating the content and adding new things, so they are the ones who make it great. There are lots of good things there.

Thanksgiving Day.

“Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude.” — Joseph Wood Krutch