. . . in the distant, early morning . . .

I dub thee “Alistare”

Today I went to check out Brooke and see how she interacted with Elka.  To be quite honestly I chickened out.  I’m not ready at this point in my life to take on a dog with such strong stigma attached to it.  A pit bull can’t attend daycare around here - my two favored daycares won’t take her and that gives me a problem both for daycare and boarding.

There is also stigma attached, and renting becomes harder.  When I sell this house - likely within the lifespan of this dog - I may need to rent and renting with a pit is nearly impossible in some areas.

So I didn’t go with Brooke.  We headed down to Family Dogs New Life to look at two dogs: Tarvin and Jacob.  Tarvin was in the process of being adopted so we decided to see Jacob.  Jacob is a chow mix, 5 months old, and completely gorgeous.

Well, about 15 minutes later we decided to walk Elka and Jacob together.  They walked fine together, though it was pure chaos. Elka needs a refresher on leash training and Jacob never learned.

About 30 minutes later I handed over a check and we left with Jacob.  On the way home we stopped at PetSmart for a new collar and an appropriately sized bed for his crate.  Then we came home and they spent about the next 30 minutes going flat out around my yard chasing.  Then they wrestled.  Then they cuddled.

I don’t like the name Jacob for my dog, so we spent a few hours discussing options and his new name is Alistare.  Yes, I deliberately mis-spelled it.  Alistair it the typical spelling but I prefer the cute joke of “All I Stare” though I dropped that extra “l” to make the pronunciation more obvious.

So right now Alistare is snuggled on the couch asleep and Elka is snuggled at my couch asleep.  He’s a pretty mellow puppy though he sure can play!  And he already barks at strangers.  Elka’s dream playmate and my dream dog, all in one.

Oh, and he appears to have no interest at all in Mali, for which I’m sure she’ll be eternally (un)grateful.

Happiness is a puppy.

-Lisa, on January 2, 2010 at 5:55 pm

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