Who Actually Adopts Who?
Posted on July 13 2017
This blog post has been written by Heather Murphy, and kindly shared by our pals at Eezapet.
I'm not sure about you but the dogs that have come into my life have all been adopted. It's only with the recent addition of number three that got me thinking “Actually who adopts who?” I always thought I'd chosen my dogs but now I'm not so sure.
Number three definitely adopted us, that's for sure!
We recently moved out of our Wellington house and upon 15 minutes of us arriving at our new house this dog turned up - a little Foxie cross. He was super excited to welcome in the new neighbours!
The truck left and he stayed and stayed and stayed. I thought surely someone will come looking for him, We rang around and went walking to see which house he indicated he lived in - but everything indicated he lived with us! I thought “oh no maybe he lived here before and worked his way back to his house!” The estate agent soon confirmed no, this was not the case. I tried to be tough for a couple of days leaving him crying outside our door till midnight hoping he would return to the house he came from but no he just worked me some more…. I made a warm nest for him in our porch, then when it got really cold he came inside warming himself by the fire, then he graduated upstairs to the dogs’ beds.
He had decided! He had chosen us! He was adamant he was staying!
We eventually found his original home but he came back to ours in a nano second Everytime. So after a few discussions it was decided that little Hemi, as we called him, would come and live with us.
So this got me thinking about the other two dogs we had adopted - who adopted who?
I used to be the canine carer at the SPCA and that's where I metCoco, dog number one and the Eezapet mascot due to her allergies. At lunchtimes I would take a puppy to sit on my lap whilst I ate my lunch - most of the time this was a disaster but when it was Coco’s turn she would sit so still not even acknowledging I was eating! She was just happy to have some one-on-one time. For me that was the moment I fell in love with her. I'm pretty sure Coco had decided on me long before then though!
Six years later when I was working as relief carer at SPCA, Bhindi came along. Her litter mates were all adopted but Bhindi was left waiting - she waited six months to no avail. Bhindi was a cuddle monster and was taken to all the hospice, schools and educational programmes - she adored people. We had a social bond. She’d look at me with her big brown eyes willing me to give her attention. I knew she had chosen me but we weren't looking for a second dog so I had to work on my partner. We weren't looking for number 2 and we definitely weren't looking for number 3! I took Bhindi to meet Coco on neutral territory and they got on really well. When my partner turned up Bhindi was super excited and ran over to him like long lost friends showering him with affection - she worked her magic…. and that was that! She moved in, she stayed.
So I really think that dogs choose you, but allow you to think that you choose them! Funny how things turn out.
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