Hello Pilgrim

[jc: guest post]

As many of you know, Katie and I have been thinking and talking about getting a dog for awhile now. When we were in Boston, we wanted one but we never would have had the time for it. When we moved to Pittsburgh, we thought we'd have the time for a dog but we couldn't find a "livable" place that would let us have a dog. Now that we are in San Francisco things seem to have aligned: Our landlord is cool with us getting a dog, we will have the time for a dog, and we live near a number of dog-friendly parks.

Not wanting to rush into anything, we've spent a chunk of time "window shopping" online and doing some light research of different breeds. From this we created a sort of check-list of traits and things that we'd be looking for in a dog. Over the last couple of months we've seen a lot of nice looking pups, but for one reason or another they didn't meet our criteria.

Saturday morning, when I was still sleeping, Katie was up with her coffee sifting through her usual dog links, when she stumbled on to a cute little guy with a description that seemed to meet all of our criteria. When I got up, Katie showed me the photo, read me the description, and after a couple of cups of coffee we decided to go visit the pooch in the flesh.

When we got to the shelter, we found the cute little boxer-pit-rhodesian pup calmly sitting in his room waiting to be cuddled by a couple that had arrived just before us. So we sat, filled out a few forms and waited. After about 20 minutes, the couple left and we got to check him out. From the start you could tell that he was of a friendly disposition, and was looking to play. We sat in that room for 30 minutes, talking with one of the lead dog trainers, playing with him and watching how he took to us and us to him. We got along famously. Eventually we were told to go home, talk it over and if we were still interested we could come back and spend some more time with him... they try to discourage any kind of impulse behaviour.

We talked, and we dug him. He was friendly, smart, and cute as shit... and he met all of our crazy ass requirements. There was just one problem. We hadn't really planned on getting a dog before Christmas, and there's now way that a shelter could hold him for us until after the holiday. Saddened, we decided that we'd go back to the shelter to see if the kind soul there could help us figure something out.

This morning we got up, had a few cups of coffee and headed out. When we got there, we laid out or situation and hoped for the best. The woman that had helped us before, told us that she that we were great for him and he really seemed to like us, and she wanted to see him go home with us. She understood our situation, and gave us a bunch of names of folks (friends of hers) that specialize in boarding puppies. While it isn't ideal to get a pup and then board him a week later (for a week), we may do it. I know. Sucks. But, damn you just wait until you meet him.

So as things stand, i we book our tickets to Maine and find a kind soul willing to take him for the holiday, than we can take him home. If not... well, let's just say that will be sad. I'm not saying I'll blame my family, but really why else would we go to Maine. (HI MOM!)

Anyway, I think things will work out and that is why I've bothered to spew forth all of this drivel about puppies. So, just to get you all acquainted...
this is Pilgrim.





And yes, that name will change. We've got a few in mind, but nothing solid. We'll let you know how things work out.

[/jc: guest post]