Dingo Comes Home

I was on myspace on Wednesday, September 13th and an old classmate of mine had her dog on there. Her dog was a Shiba Inu, which is what Trixie was. She was part of a Shiba Inu fan club, and when I clicked over there the leader had a note that said to check out petfinder.com for Shiba Inus as there were a lot on there. I went to petfinder.com not with the intention of finding a new pet, but just looking at Shiba Inus. I put in the search criteria - Shiba Inus only. Up came a page with lots of them. I scrolled through just glancing at the pictures and the names. When I came upon Dingo. To be honest, I only clicked on her because of her name. I thought it was neat that someone else saw the physical similarities with Dingoes. We thought Trixie was a dingo for the longest time - that's the kind of dog she looked like. Very few people are familiar with Shiba Inus, so no one ever corrected us until we got her into dog training.

Anyway, I opened Dingo's profile and what I found was a lovely dog who needed another home. She was six years old and had lost her owner when he passed away. :( I thought it was too weird that she was six and Trixie was six. She had lost her owner and needed another home. We had lost our Trixie and needed another dog. Her smiling face captured me. I loved her.

I checked into the Animal Rescue group that had her and my heart dropped when I read they only did adoptions to certain counties in PA. :( I got sad and moved on, went on looking at other dogs. Now I was looking for a dog because I had just found Dingo and now that I couldn't have her, I was trying to find someone else. I kept looking at other dogs, but no one matched up with Dingo. I went back to look at her. She loved to run and play. She was perfect! Desperate, I contacted the email address on the animal rescue page and explained why I had taken a liking to Dingo. I asked if there was absolutely no way they would ever consider an out of state adoption. I got an email back on Thursday, September 14th. It didn't say no, like I expected! It said someone would call me! I rushed home from work terribly excited, waiting, waiting for the phone to ring. By 6:30 I had given up. Then the phone rang! I had two phone screenings and got to find out about Dingo's past. She followed her first owner home from the park one day while he was out jogging and while her first owner cherished her and treated her right, his neice took her after he passed away and abused her for two years. No food, allowed her to get beaten up by her two other dogs, never took Dingo on vacation, had no toys, and left her outside all by herself. They eventually moved out of their house and left poor Dingo outside at the old house to fend for herself. :( Dingo's story broke my heart. I realize that there are millions of similar stories, and some much worse, but Dingo's story just broke my heart. I just wanted desperately to give this dog a hug. That's what she deserved.

Things I later found out that made me that much more sure that she was the dog that we were meant to find was that she was boarded in a kennel two weeks prior - the start of her new life after getting out of that abusive home. We had lost our wonderful Trixie two weeks prior. It really seemed like a match made in Heaven - meant to be.

She was a trip the whole car ride home, she wanted the windows down, which we were reluctant to do, but put them down a little. She stuck her nose out as far as it would go. About an hour into the trip I realized we could trust her and put the windows all the way down. I held onto her leash and her collar while she put her whole head out the window, closed her eyes, and smiled. :) Jamie kept petting her and calling her to him. Eventually she realized she could step on me and did so. I was in her way. She wanted to get to the front window. She used me as a leaning post. I was unimportant. LOL.

We came home and introduced her to Sasha, they are fine. Dingo is such a sweet girl. She bothers no one. She is calm and just loving. She loves our backyard and was out there playing with me. The first thing she did freaked me out. Trixie used to run at me and run at me and run at me and just when I thought I was going to get to catch her, she'd turn at the last second and dart off in a completely different way. She was such a tease. Dingo did that. She did exactly that the first time. It gave me goosebumps. They look almost identical, it's just bizarre. Dingo's face always has a smile on it, just like Trixie's used to. But they are different in so many ways as well.

She is such a sweet girl. She is just wonderful with the other pets, she loves to be outside, but not alone. She wants to be around someone all the time. She does not like to be alone. Wherever Jamie and I go, she goes. I called her up on the bed with me and she got comfortable. I think when bedtime rolls around tonight, getting her to sleep in the dog room with Sasha will be difficult. I think when we told her she got her own bed, she was mistaken and thought our bed was her bed! We shall see what happens at bedtime, but I would not be surpised to have her curl up next to us.

While she was abused for two years, it's clear that someone spent some time with her (most likely her first owner). She knows sit and stay and down. She is a really great dog. I hope her first owner can finally rest knowing that she's in a good home now. I hope he'll watch our Trixie for us while we watch his Dingo for him. She is the perfect dog for our family. We are so happy to have her.