Happy Birthday, Psycho

Almost two years ago, my girlfriend and I fulfilled one of my life long dreams. We brought home a puppy. It took some arguing on my part, and a lot of anxiety and secrecy (people thought we were crazy, and probably still do), but in the end we both agreed that it'd be fun. I couldn't wait.

We had been looking to adopt from a shelter (not only because we are what the Chinese call "foo king poor", but also because we felt that it was better to rescue a dog who needed a home). We had gone to a shelter in East Hanover, and I think had checked out one or two others elsewhere, too. Nobody seemed to have what we were looking for. We had to be very specific, as I am allergic to many forms of animal hair/dander. Certain breeds were automatically out. Also, we wanted a medium/small breed, and a dog that was no more than a year old.

I have to say, Petfinder.com is the place to go. Animal shelters upload their files of what they have, and include vaxination info, histories, pictures, etc. We had a few leads with this website, and checked it regularly.

One day in August, out of the blue, I took a glance at petfinder while at work. I can't remember what day it was. I saw that an animal shelter in Landing had some puppies. They had a bunch of "puggles", and one mini schnauzer puppy. The schnauzers were on our list of approved breeds.

I left work early, and went to Petsmart. I walked around, and nervously thought. I brainstormed. You have to understand, I had wanted a dog my entire life. From about the time I could say the word "dog", I wanted one. It simply hadn't been an option, though. Now, I was living with my girlfriend, we had agreed on taking care of one, and we could afford it. Okay, that last bit about "affording it" is a complete lie, but we told ourselves that at the time and just agreed to believe. I mean, come on, sometimes you just have to believe!

I bought a leash. The petfinder ad had said to bring a leash. I kept telling myself, "You're just going to check it out, you're not getting a puppy today."

What if they didn't mean to bring a leash just if you were getting a puppy? What if you needed to present a leash for admission to the kennel, even if you were just looking?

"You're NOT getting a puppy today, Brendan."

"I know that, Brendan. I'm just buying the leash anyway. For, um...for fun." I bought the leash.

I called Laura. She met up with me at Borders, Rockaway. I told her about the ad. "So, do you wanna just go check it out?" She agreed, and we were off.

When we got to the pound, we let them know that I had seen the ad on Petfinder. A woman in scrubs led us down a concrete hallway, lined with enclosures that housed older dogs. Some very big. Some very old. All very loud. At the end of the hall was a door, and behind the door were two small rooms. To the right, kittens. To the left, puppies.

There were cages stacked on top of each other. These were huge cages, that were big enough to house a number of puppies each. In the top cage was the bunch of puggle pups that I had seen also advertised on the Petfinder page. They barked and barked and wrestled and barked. In the cage below was a little black mass. She didn't bark. She stood and came to the edge of her cage and peered out. She was tiny. Petite. Her hair was wiry and unkempt, with dirt and bits of 'whatever else' throughout. The lady in scrubs opened the cage and pulled her out. She placed the puppy on the floor, and the pup immediately started exploring the area around her, including the barking puggles. After a few minutes of listening to them bark at her, she barked back. She had some spunk. I lured her over and picked her up. She looked straight into my eyes. Laura scratched her ears and talked to her. After a second or two, the pup relaxed in my arms, and rested her head agains my chest. I looked at Laura, with my heart pounding. "Yeah," I said, "She's it. She's the one."

To this day, at two human years old, Libby still likes to be held.