I've been checking out the SFSPCA and SF ACC pages on and off for a while. I generally don't see any dogs that I'm really interested in, but it's fun to check from time-to-time. I happened to look at the SF SPCA's page on Sunday, May 8th, which was the day after we returned from London. The minute I saw Wallace's photo and description, I knew he could be a dog that I'd want to adopt.
Wallace's (Wallis) Page at the San Francisco SPCA
I loved everything about him: I loved his age, his size, his breed-type (I love miniature poodles, and other similar dogs), and even his name (although I didn't love the spelling). And sad as the circumstances were, I even loved that he was a recent tri-pod (three legged) as our friends, Reeves and Paula, used to have a three-legged dog who was incredibly sweet and good.
I showed his photo to Dick and he agreed that we could go to the SPCA during the week to see him. Dick and I had actually had a long-standing disagreement on what kind/breed of dog we should get. He really likes dogs with short fur, and more traditional looking. You know, a dog-dog. Me? I basically wanted a walking teddy bear that I could put a polka-dot scarf on, and call "Fozzie".
Anyhow, lucky for both of us, Dick did like the looks and description of Wallace. We went Tuesday afternoon, after playing golf. We first spotted him in the condo that he shared with his two roommates. (the SF SPCA has small rooms called Condos that are shared by 2 or 3 dogs at a time.) Wallace had just returned from a walk, and that volunteer told us that he was a very sweet dog, but very shy. When he had first come to the SPCA 10 days earlier, he had been fairly traumatized and was scared. He had his leg amputated only 10 days before. He also said that Wallace had just started to come out of his shell only within the last two days.
The SPCA has a large sectioned off space where potential owners can meet a dog one-on-one. They brought Wallace in to meet us. He was shy, but not scared. I was immediately smitten. He was sweet, walked around with us a bit, and let us pet and talk to him. We probably hung out with him for about 30 minutes or so.
I had promised Dick that we wouldn't go home with a dog that day, and I honored our agreement, and we went home. I thought about Wallace a lot, thinking he was the perfect dog for us, but we just weren't sure that we were ready yet.
The next day, I showed his photos to my parents and my sister and they all agreed that he was really adorable, and couldn't believe that I was able to leave him there. The thing is, I knew that Wallace was very adoptable, and I trusted that the SPCA would find a good home for him, even if it wasn't with us. That knowledge helped alleviate any guilt that I may have had, and really, Dick and I just didn't know if we were ready for a dog.
On Friday, Dick suggested that we go back to the SPCA to check out some of the other dogs. He said we were so focused on Wallace Tuesday, that we didn't really look at the other dogs who were there. He thought that in fairness, he wanted to interact with at least one other dog that we saw there to see how another dog's personality would be.
So, we went back Friday early afternoon. Wallace was still there, but I tried not to focus on him too much. There was another larger dog that Dick was interested in meeting. It turned out that the other dog as an Australian Cattle Dog, and when we were getting ready to see him, the volunteer noticed that our application said that we had a cat. It turns out that the type of dog we were looking at would not be good with cats (cattle dog/herder), so we decided not to see him.
As we were waiting around, another gentleman had come in to look at dogs and had asked to meet Wallace. My heart skipped a bit, but I managed not to freak out too much, but still... I told the man that we had seen Wallace on Tuesday, and that we were considering him. The man told me that he was in the early stages of looking, and didn't actually plan to bring a dog home that day.
We left the shelter in the mid-afternoon. After we came home, I thought about Wallace a lot, and even called my parents to talk about him. Dick and I had agreed that there would be a good chance that Wallace would be adopted out over the weekend. The more I thought about it, the more sad the thought about him going somewhere else made me. At some point, Dick told me about the hold policy that he had read about at the SPCA. I knew they had a 24-hour hold period (which was new to me since I adopted my first cat there in 2000), but Dick learned that we could put a hold on a dog for $25/day for up to three days.
Long story short, we drove back. I actually called the SPCA along the way to let them know we were coming. I called at 5:15, and I knew they closed at 6:00. We arrived at 5:30, spent more time with Wallace (which are the last two photos) and I really fell in love with him. We left after 6:00, having given them money to hold him for us for three days, which would end Monday evening.
Anyhow, here are the photos I took of him from when we first met him last week. The first three are from Tuesday, the last two are from Friday. You may be able to tell that when we saw Wallace on Friday, he already seemed to be happier and healthier looking than he had on Tuesday.
Tuesday
Tuesday
Tuesday
Friday
Friday
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