Our daughter Sarah called us a few days ago and told us that her landlord had informed her in no uncertain terms that no dogs were allowed in her new apartment. This was right after she rescued a little Scottie, who had clearly been severely neglected. Ray got off the phone that night and said, “We are not taking that dog.” My response was, “Let’s just see what happens.”
Tonight I called Sarah to check on the landlord/dog problem and Sarah told me she had contacted a Scottie Rescue. “Oh goodness,” I said, just as Ray walked in the room. I put my hand over the receiver, “Sarah is going to have to give Sammie away.”
I knew this would cause distress for Ray. He had already fallen in love with this dog in just the two days she was here with us in Texas before Sarah and Rachael drove back with her to California. He is a big softie, after all.
Sarah told me she had cried for an hour after the landlord had told her the dog had to go. I repeated that information to Ray while Sarah was on the phone.
“An hour?” Ray said.
Sarah and I talked about heart worm treatment and how Sammie’s jaw infection was improving since getting medication from the vet while she was here. We also discussed the problems resulting from Sammie being only semi-house trained. Apparently, she had lived outside while she was pregnant with two litters of puppies she had delivered in her short three years of life while living at her former home, which was beginning to sound more and more like a puppy mill.
Sometime during that conversation, I saw Ray’s face soften. I said to Sarah, “I believe Dad is having a change of heart about us helping with the dog.”
By the end of our talk, we had struck a bargain that we would “foster-parent” little Sammie for the time being. This is based on the assumption that Sammie will adjust to our house and to our Corgie, Cordelia, which we expect will be no problem since the two dogs got along perfectly well for the short time she was with us here in Texas.
So, when we return to California in the next couple of weeks, little Sammie will be coming over for an extended stay. That way Sarah can relax and study for her Step 2 National Boards, which she must pass this summer before she can graduate from medical school next year, and we can enjoy our new foster dog – a 3-year-old Scottie, who has a few issues to deal with but who is adorable.
What caused Ray to change his mind? He said right after I hang up the phone, “We can’t have Sarah crying for an hour over this dog.”
And my response was, as you might expect, “Well, of course, we can’t.”
Comentários