One summer many years ago, my husband arrived home from work accompanied by a 3 year old bassett hound surprise. I was 8 months pregnant with my second child and my first baby was only 13 months old. Rosie had been abandoned by a coworker, so my husband thought it would be a good idea to have her join our growing family in our 800 sq ft home.
As hard as we tried there was no smooth transition for Rosie. She was a fierce defender of her new territory. Unfortunately, this meant vicious barking at any movement occurring outside our home. Rosie was particularly on alert for the daily mail delivery on our front porch. Unfortunately, this daily invasion always coinsided with daily nap time for my 13 month old. Nothing I tried could deter the deep, loud defense of our tiny home. I tried putting her outside in the backyard while the baby slept, but Rosie wouldn't have it. She barked and howled nonstop until I relented and brought her back inside.
Inside, all day, when she wasn't barking, she was
essentially tied to my feet. When I fed the baby her bottle, Rosie would lay on top of my feet. When I stood at the stove or the sink, she would settle in right behind my legs. I was literally tripping over this dog constantly. Did I mention that I was 8 months pregnant?
Finally, just before I was due to give birth to our second child, I told my husband that
I just could not offer the attention that Rosie so desired. With soon to be two babies, I just couldn't handle what was clearly Rosie's big needs. We agreed that it was not the best time to bring a dog into our crazy lives. We decided to take Rosie to the local dog shelter where she could be adopted by someone who was able to devote to her all the attention that she clearly needed.
We brought Rosie to the shelter and the workers got her settled in her temporary home. We were filing out some paperwork before leaving when I questioned the shelter worker about adoption procedure. That was when he casually mentioned that the shelter was full of animals and if Rosie wasn't adopted in 8 days, she would be euthanized! We had never even been in a shelter before and had no idea that that was a possibility.
On the drive home both my husband and I felt completely terrible. Rosie had not come into our family at an exactly opportune time and had caused problems that I didn't know how to remedy, but she didn't deserve to be turned over to die! We were almost home when we turned the car around and headed back to the shelter.
Yes, yes we rescued the dog that we had just within the last hour dropped off to be adopted. Yes, yes we paid the shelter adoption fee to adopt the dog we had just within the last hour dropped off to be adopted. Rosie, none the worse for wear, enjoyed her short field trip and remained safe and unharmed.
I gave birth shortly after and now commandeered a newborn as well as a 14 month old. My hands were quite full. I continued to trip over this big bassett, baby in my arms now. Two babies awakened from naps now.
Happily, this story didn't end there. Shortly after we "adopted" Rosie, my husband came home with another coworker who just happened to love bassett hounds. This man fell in love with Rosie immediately. Even better, he lived on a large property with his own young bassett who loved to run and play and romp in the huge yard. The three of them hit it off from the start and Rosie finally had her dream situation with lots of space, attention, companionship and play.
Rosie's new dad reported occasionally how happy both he and Rosie were. He always told us she was a great dog. Finally, it was clearly meant to be.
RICHMOND, TX
