Two plus one?

A fairly quiet planned Saturday ended up being a bit busier than scheduled. A trip to the gym first off was always on the cards and somewhere in the day we planned a trip to the place we got most of our furniture from to pay for a painting Jo picked up yesterday for the living room. The trip to furniture shop ended up with us ordering an ottoman, a cd rack and a mirror as well as bringing home a rug and a cushion and a tabletop sculpture thing to see how they look and for the colours and stuff; we took a drive out to New Brighton and had some lunch at a lovely little cafe at the library by the pier; and we headed back home via Mitre 10 at Hornby to get a couple of sun-longer/chair things for the garden. Oh, and we went to see a man about a dog.

Dogwatch is a great place here in Christchurch where abandoned dogs are rescued from the pound in order to re-home them. I had heard about the place from someone at work so we thought we'd go and check it out today. There were a couple of dogs that we liked the look of, a border collie called Dixie and a collie labrador cross called Lass. However we were advised that due to us being out all day they'd probably get bored and we'd suit a dog that is more happy to look after itself. Also, which was news to us, we were advised to go for a dog that little bit older rather than a puppy. This was a surprise to me, I think. I'd always assumed we'd get a pup. It does seem a shame to miss the puppy stage but I can see where they're coming from, I guess.

Those two dogs were pretty much all that was really suitable for us but the people at Dogwatch advised us to check out the pound which was only just round the corner. They had a few more dogs there, and some of them really were looking sorry for themselves. One that attracted us though was a 2yr old black lab called Storm. She was just lovely. We were able to take her out for a bit of a walk on the land surrounding the pound to get to know her a bit. I think we both liked her and she seemed to like us.

It's such a hard decision though, you know. If we take her from the pound it's an all or nothing decision. One bit of good news is that Dogwatch have had a few dogs taken this week so far so have room for others from the pound and Storm is on the list to be moved. Fingers crossed for this. It would work out perfectly if she is. Dogwatch have a period where they keep the dogs to watch over them, to have them properly vaccinated, to assess their character and needs and to make sure they're socialable with people and other dogs and stuff. Also they have an initial one-week trial period for a dog in its new home. This would be great for us as it means we get to have Storm here and we get to see if she's happy here and how the fit is. Much better having a trial period than simply a yes-no thing and then no come-back, I think. So, watch this space. We'll contact the pound and Dogwatch on Monday and see what's happening. The good thing is that the pound is closed till Monday now so no-one else will get to see her before Monday.

Ooh, and happy birthday, Dad! Looking forward to seeing you next month.