Last week, Joe and I adopted Jane! She's a 3 year old Australian shepherd that was part of 43 dogs confiscated from a puppy mill/dog hoarding situation that Humane Fort Wayne took down about a month ago. Her past has had trauma and abuse, leaving her anxious and extra cautious of men. But the transformation we've seen in her in just a few days has been nothing short of amazing! She's just so sweet, and we can't believe how perfect she is for us. Even the cats have already adjusted to a dog in the house because she's so calm and gentle with them. She's such a joy to have, and we love her so much!!
I'll be posting a lot of Jane here, so stay tuned for more pictures of our precious girl! So far I just have cell phone pictures, but I'll be getting my nice camera out soon.
For those interested in more backstory on Joe and I seemingly getting a dog out of the blue, the truth is, I've been wanting a dog again for a couple of years, which Joe was definitely aware of. He was also aware of the fact that last year, I felt like the Lord told me we would not get another dog as there just wasn't space in our lives for such a commitment. I had dropped the issue until some major life stuff happened in March with me leaving my job and getting a new one and Joe leaving his role in IEN. I was very aware that our lives were on a new path and along with that, I felt the door was now open for us to get a dog. I became aware of this group of Australian Shepherds and really wanted one but the timing was wrong. However, with Joe's permission, I got us pre-approved for adopting a dog from Humane Fort Wayne, with the hope that when the time was right, we'd adopt a dog.
As I watched more and more of the Australian Shepherds get adopted, Joe and I talked and he made it clear that he wanted to get a puppy. I knew there was a litter of puppies that would be available around the end of June which would be pretty great timing for us. I didn't want a puppy, but for a while, I convinced myself that I was fine with one if that's what it took to have a dog again. But as time went on, I realized I truly did not want a puppy and since Joe didn't want to get an adult dog, we probably would just never get a dog again and that would be fine. Before I told Joe about my decision, I had a dream with a puppy in it, and in my dream, I was very calm and didn't have anxiety about the puppy. The next day, I told Joe everything about how I had recently decided again that we wouldn't get a dog and about the dream I had. He admitted that he didn't realize how much I was against getting a puppy and I was finally able to fully articulate why to him. When I talked about how much I thought an adult dog would be ideal for us, he agreed and immediately spent a bunch of time looking at available dogs. We found two that he really wanted us to look at the next day. One was Jane at Humane Fort Wayne and one was Snickers who was at a different facility (but actually part of the same group that was rescued). That evening, I saw that Jane got her own post on Humane's Facebook page, and I told Joe that we wouldn't get a chance to get her now because we had an appointment at 11 (the same time Humane opens) to get our passports, and I was sure someone else would beat us there and snatch her up.
The next day, our morning was busy with work, then getting our pictures taken and printed, and getting copies made of our documents. We arrived late to our appointment, but we were well-prepared and it went quickly and smoothly. When we went to leave the post office, I asked if we were going home or out to lunch, but Joe said we should go look at Jane. I resisted at first because I didn't really see the point of looking. But he really wanted to meet her. So, we drove to Humane, and it wasn't until we were at the front desk saying we wanted to meet Jane that it occurred to me that we didn't check first to see if she was even still there.
I wasn't sure what to feel when I first saw Jane brought in the room with us. She was so pretty and seemed so sweet, but she was the most scared dog I've ever seen, and I still didn't know how to feel about us being there in the first place. Jane had no interest in getting close to Joe or I. The staff lady was sweet, and it soon became apparent that Jane wouldn't get close to us as long as she was in the room, so she left for a bit. Joe and I took the opportunity to talk a bit but my brain couldn't handle the thought of us possibly actually adopting her. I'm a planner, and this wasn't completely, carefully planned, so how could something as life-changing as adopting a dog be allowed to happen?
Eventually the lady could tell that we had hesitations, and I could tell she wanted us to say yes. I felt bad since I knew we couldn't say yes right then or maybe even at all, so we asked if they could hold her at all because we had all the dog stuff we needed, but it was still in our attic. I figured this would also give Joe and I more time to have a super real conversation about how serious we were or weren't about actually adopting a dog so suddenly. She left to get approval for Jane to be held for 1 hour. When she returned, she said that she actually got us approved for a Rovernight. This meant that we could take Jane home with us right then, and we didn't need to make the decision on adopting her or not until the following day. If we chose not to adopt, we'd return her before they open at 11 am. Otherwise, we could do the official adoption over the phone. Based on the timing, we'd get around 23 hours to make a choice. We happily agreed as this felt perfect for us.
Those 23 hours were a bit rough (quickly rearranging our house/schedule to accommodate her, cleaning up her accidents, and unsuccessfully attempting to keep both cats locked up in the basement, among other things), but we saw a sweet, gentle dog with a huge desire to learn underneath all the fear and anxiety. And so the next day, we made the call to officially adopt her. Every day has gotten so much better! And every day I'm more and more thankful that I listened to Joe because he had the right idea about us going to meet Jane. ❤
