February 26, 2006

Wesley’s Ship Has Come In

This morning we woke up without Wesley. Wesley is our mellow (but occasionally spunky) 5 year-old Shih Tzu. We’ve been talking for a while about giving him up for adoption. He’s a great dog, but we hated boarding him anytime we traveled, and taking him with us on our cross-country trips home was always complicated. But, we would not give him to just anybody. We had to find the perfect home for him where he would get lots of love and attention.

We put an ad in the Star-Telegram newspaper and on their website. Here’s the newspaper ad

SHIH-TZU Age 5 /
Loves Kids / Neut /
$80 / 555-555-5555

One thing we’ve learned from our research is that you should never ever advertise a pet for free. Having an adoption fee means that only really interested people will call. It also means that the people who do call will really want him. We read horror stories of people who abuse animals that they picked up from someone who advertised their beloved little pet as “Free to a good home.”

I was not prepared when the calls started. We had about 15 calls the first day. Interestingly though, they were all from the newspaper ad. So I let them all go to voicemail while I formulated interview questions:

1. Do you want this dog for you or someone else?
2. Why do you want a dog?
3. Have you had animals before? What happened?
4. Do you want an inside or outside dog?
5. Is someone home during the day?
6. Where will you keep the animal when you’re not home?
7. Do you have children? How many? Ages?
8. Do you believe in taking dogs to the vet?
9. Where do you live? Own it or Lease it?
10. Do you have a yard with a fence?

1. Can you give me the name and number of at least one reference I can call? (Tiffany really gave me a hard time about this one).

   Well, this weekend, Wesley’s ship has come in. He hit the mother load.

   Long story short. He now lives on 50 acre Texas ranch with a sweet 50ish couple who have all kinds of farm animals, but what they really wanted was an inside dog who they could love on all the time. That sounds like a perfect job description for Wesley: Laze around on someone’s bed and sofa and be the objection of their undivided attention and affection.

   Wesley’s new mommy called us last night just to tell us that Wesley’s first night was so good. He was so sweet and gentle. Their grandkids came over and loved him. Their elderly blind mother adored him. They were giddy.

   We’re all kind of sad today. It was a terribly hard decision for us. Wesley is really a wonderful dog. He was great with Caleb, and Caleb so far seems to be taking it well. He has asked about Wesley a couple times today, but we tell him that he lives on a farm now, and he’s so happy, and we’ll go visit him soon. They have invited us to come down to the ranch and visit anytime, so we will definitely do that in a week or two. I think it will be good for Caleb to see Wesley so happy and know where he lives. See additional pictures of Wesley