A Story About Dogs - Part 3




Shani

 I brought Shani home just days after my 50th birthday. I had made the rounds of every animal shelter in the Las Vegas area before I found her. She was listed as a "stray, approx. 5 months old, Shepherd Mix" and at first I wasn't sure if this was the puppy I was supposed to bring home. I called my husband on the phone and asked him what he thought.

Only days before we'd lost our beautiful and sweet Shiloh, a year and a half old Shepherd/Chow mix, when she was killed by Gypsy, a stray dog we'd taken into our household only a few weeks before. So I was leery about adopting another stray. Our other two dogs, Maggie and Nikki, both Lab/Chow mixes, were also mourning the loss of Shiloh.  All of us, my husband included, kept walking around the house expecting Shiloh to pop out of hiding with her tail wagging and a big doggie smile. There was a big empty hole in our household and we needed to do something about it, fast. This 5 month old pup was pretty, but I just wasn't sure about her.  Looking at her through the wires of her pen, she seemed so terribly sad. If I didn't take her home, who would? Since she was in a "kill shelter" I knew she only had days before her time was up.



I'd been looking for a real puppy, one in the 10-12 week range, not a 30 pound, half grown pup who obviously had seen better days. Her fur was long and thick, but she definitely look malnourished. I talked to the woman at the front desk and was told the the pup was found wandering the streets. Considering the temp had been in the 110s for days straight, it was a wonder she hadn't died from heat exhaustion. Well, no wonder she was skinny and depressed.

The puppy had been at the pound the requisite number of days and no one had claimed her. Apparently she was just another case of dog dumping, which was prevalent in the Las Vegas area. People flocked to Vegas year round in hopes of starting a new life and making that "big win."  But according to statistics, most people quickly went through all their money and moved away within three months, often leaving everything behind, including their pets. So this puppy was probably one of those abandoned by someone heading out of town. She'd been found close to the desert, near Boulder Highway, the main route south out of Vegas.

So I described the puppy to my husband and asked, "What do you think? She's not a little puppy, but she is beautiful." He suggested I play with her for a while and see what I think. So I got one of the animal control people to let me take the pup out into the play area. The first thing she did was pee at my feet and then roll over for a belly rub. The animal control girl said, "She might have incontinence problems." I thought not, that the puppy was probably just stressed to the max and was so excited that someone actually wanted to take her out to play that she had to pee. I also figured she was not used to "peeing in her house" and so wasn't peeing in her pen. I thought she definitely must have been a house-dog in her former life.

Within minutes this sweet puppy had won me over and I was ready to take her home. Only when we walked up to the front desk I was told the pup still had to be spayed. So I could pay for her and then pick her up the next day after the procedure. I went home very concerned about the puppy surviving the surgery. By the time my husband got home from work that evening he'd already, sight unseen, named the puppy Shenandoah. I agreed and said her nickname would be Shani.

The next afternoon I went back to the pound to pick up Shani. She was so excited to see me that she promptly peed at my feet again. I had  a momentary second thought about "what if she's incontinent?" Then I decided to take my chances and Shani and I walked out the door. (Read more in Part 4.)