Adopting a second dog: the transition
On July 21, we adopted a second dog and became a little family of four!
In case we’re not friends on Facebook, this little lady is Molly Louise. We adopted her from the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando.
It’s funny because I initially began volunteering there in an attempt to quell my puppy fever. I figured that playing with dogs without the responsibility of owning them would satisfy my need to add another dog to our family.
But alas, this only fanned the flame.
You see, here in Orange County, there’s PAGO and right across the street is Orange County Animal Services. PAGO is privately-owned and only takes owner surrenders, whereas OCAS has to take any and all animals since they’re a government facility.
So it became a habit of mine to browse both shelters’ adoptable pets online on a daily basis. There were so many potential doggies we both wanted to adopt, but the timing was always off.
At one point, we decided that it would be best if we just became foster parents for a while. That way, we’d still be helping an animal even though we wouldn’t get to keep it. We were actually planning on attending a puppy foster orientation, but the apartment tour we were on ran longer than we expected. So I asked Anthony if he wanted to go to the shelters anyway to check out the dogs and he shrugged, sure.
We ended up meeting with two dogs at PAGO that we had seen online. I really wanted to meet with a dog named Ariel because she was right at the top of the alphabetical list every time I opened the adoptable dogs page for the past month. I had grown fond of that face and wanted to see how she was in person. She was indeed just as cute, but the most precious part came when we got to meet her.
I never wanted to make a decision about adopting a dog without my husband. I wanted to fall in love with the dog together and decide together. So when Ariel excitedly bounded into the room, she instantly jumped into Anthony’s arms and snuggled. She was so sweet and cute and she completely stole our hearts.
We were told that she was heartworm positive, but PAGO sponsors the treatment and she would have to be on strict rest until treatment is over. This is absolutely no problem considering we’re pretty sedentary people. Heck, Minnie plops all day long.
So we tried to set up a meet-and-greet between Ariel and Minnie, but we were told they don’t do them on the weekends, so we said we were just going to go home and ruminate.
The next morning, the very first thing Anthony said upon waking up was that he was thinking about Ariel. I was like, “Okay that’s it, we’re going to get her.” And that’s exactly what we did.
We burst through the door and announced that we were there to adopt Ariel. And so they scheduled her heartworm treatment for the next few months, administered some last-minute vaccines, and then she was ours.
And because I have a Harry Potter naming policy, we decided that her name was henceforth Molly!
I was really nervous about introducing her to Minnie since bigger dogs make her a little nervous. She’s only about 10 lbs bigger and she’s in no way a large dog, but she’s still bigger than Minnie. So when they met, they just sniffed each other and Molly was quite excited. But she didn’t act standoffish, so I took it as a good sign.
According to paperwork filled out by her previous owner, the only dog she knew was her brother, and they lived outside for three years. It was no wonder she had heartworms… But when we let her sniff around our room, she made her bed in ours as if she was always an inside dog.
Molly looked right at home and it was the sweetest thing. She’s such a gentle sweetheart, and I didn’t understand how anyone could give her up.
But at the same time, I was having trouble coming to terms with the fact that she needed to learn some manners. She didn’t know any basic commands and she is a very strong puller on a leash.
Every day for the next two weeks, I became severely overwhelmed.
I was convinced that this was the worst decision we ever made. We should have taken more time to think about it. We don’t have time to take care of two dogs. We don’t have room in our apartment for two dogs. We can’t afford more vet bills. When we move to a new apartment or house, we can’t apply to places with breed restrictions, seriously limiting our options.
The worries kept piling on and on, and I cried nearly every day. I felt that someone else could take better care of her. I truly felt that we were extremely rash in our decision and I desperately wanted to give her back to PAGO. But my poor husband, always dealing with my dramatic tendencies, refused.
He made me feel incredibly guilty, reminding me that I begged him to adopt her, and asking me if I really just wanted to throw her away. Of course I didn’t, I said. But I really thought that we just weren’t the right parents for her.
I only calmed down when I realized that we could have her trained. Sure, it’s going to take time and money, but the results will be worth it.
And then she snapped at someone and their dog.
It didn’t worry me at first because it was really the other dog’s fault. The dog saw Molly in the distance and really wanted to come meet her, so the owner indulged and walked toward us. As the two approached each other, the dog jolted to the side at the last second and Molly snarled and gave such an ugly bark. I was mortified, convinced she would report my dog’s aggressive behavior to management.
Then she growled and snarled at her first vet appointment. The attendant checking us in stuck her hand out to let Molly sniff, and she did, but she decided that she didn’t like her and began to growl. And she barked in the same nasty way she barked at the dog who teased her. When we were moved to the exam room, the vet and an attendant entered the room, already aware of the nervousness. Molly was very afraid and didn’t like these two new strangers, so she snarled and barked again. This time, she snapped in our direction when she sensed Anthony’s hand near her, but once she realized it was him, she licked his hand. We muzzled her for the exam, which she did just fine with. She let them touch her, but she looked seriously downtrodden with her head pressed down to the ground like she’d just been shamed.
Those feelings rushed over me again. She’s aggressive. What are we going to do if she bites someone? What if she reacts that way when she meets our family? That is completely unacceptable. Especially because my parents despise pit bulls, which is probably part of her genetic makeup.
But what I really needed to do was take time to think through the situation. Eventually I realized that every problem I was having could be solved in some way.
So I sought out local dog trainers and we found Dog Training by Vanessa, who was offering a free session for adopted shelter dogs. What convinced us that this was the right path was that Molly never once growled at her, and was practically in her lap within five minutes of interacting with her. Plus, Vanessa explained to us that Molly isn’t aggressive– she’s scared. Basically, Molly knows that growling at something she doesn’t like makes it go away, so she continues to do it. So Vanessa is teaching us to teach her that it’s not necessary to be scared and to change the way she sees strange things.
So now every Saturday afternoon, Molly has a lesson with Vanessa, and we have homework of sorts to work on with her during the week. Now I am so confident that we are doing the right thing. After the first lesson, I truly started thinking of Molly as my dog.
Continuing the trend of problem-solving, we have a few short- and long-term goals, with the most important being to move to a larger apartment or, ideally, a house with an enclosed yard for Molly to run around in (once her treatment’s over). We feel that having extra space would make everything so much better. We wouldn’t feel so cramped and stuck, and everyone has room to breathe. And we can finally focus on being a happy little family of four 🙂
Of course, I’m anticipating new challenges with change. But I’m trying really hard to take each challenge day-by-day. And I have to remind myself that we’re doing the best we can to give Molly a better life.
