In Search of a Window ~ Part One

You've heard of the saying "When a door closes in your life, somewhere a window will open" (yes I've taken the religious content out...). Brandy's passing was so hard for our family, that for a few weeks I had convinced myself that I could never, ever go through that again as it was just too painful. No one dared bring up getting another dog with me and rightly so...no dog would ever take Brandy's place in my heart.

Then one day a thought occurred to me. What if I had said that after Dusty, or Galen, or Mojo, or any of the pets in my life who had died?

It was then I realized that I would rather go through the pain of losing a beloved pet again, than not to have one in my life. It was clear to me, as I could see the scales tipping slowly to the side of dog ownership again, that I was going to have to look for another dog. My family of course predicted this, and were sensible enough not to interfere.

What did I want? The only thing I knew for sure was that I had to rescue a dog that needed a home. I started with our local OSPCA . They seemed at the time to only have small dogs, poodle and beagle types. Ok now I knew I wanted to adopt a dog, and I wanted a medium to large dog...and with short to medium hair...and a female, who's good with cats and kids...and is no older than 2.

Sigh...would I ever find my perfect dog? I knew in the back of my mind I was really looking for a younger version of Brandy. I even found myself lurking around the Petfinder site. Then I started emailing the shelters about this dog and that (not surprisingly many of the dogs I looked at resembled Brandy.) Nothing really panned out as many of them required a fenced in yard for the hound type dogs. We have a huge yard, but not fenced in (it will be soon).

Now I honestly can't think why the idea came to me to look into greyhound adoption. They are so dissimilar from Brandy that it is a breed I never considered. But they are hounds, and largish, and shorthaired, and most are good with children and cats. Even though I had wanted a mutt, I found out there were thousands of greyhounds that needed adoptive homes after their time was up on the track. Was a greyhound the dog for me?

To be continued...