Shadow

We've been looking for chairs for our table for a while...chairs that are nice, sturdy, and won't break our hearts if our kids damage them in any way. Those are hard to find! A few weeks ago I saw a table with 6 chairs on Facebook for $125 and messaged the seller right away. They said someone was already getting it, but later messaged me and said we could have it.

The next day I loaded up the kids and the trailer and drove north of town to get the table. When we got there, Kimball got out of the van to play with their dogs. He asked the lady there what the dogs' names were and she said that the black dog had shown up a week ago, and if we wanted it we could have it.

The kids had been asking for a dog incessantly for months and were really missing that companionship. I was enjoying the freedom from responsibility of having a dog....but feeling like it might be time to start looking. I told the kids if they could talk Dale into it we could take it home. When Dale showed up, he put in some effort to convince the dog to get in his car, but the dog wasn't having it...but when I drove around the house and whistled to the dog, he came running over and put his paw on me (which was significant because he really didn't trust adults). I felt like we were supposed to bring him home, so I jumped out of the van, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and put him in the van.

We checked to see if he had a chip or if anyone had posted about him on Facebook. On Wednesday, we had a family vote and ended up naming him Shadow...though Kimball really wanted the name Buddy. Shadow seemed to fit because he's so black that you can't see him in shadows, and he is like our own little shadow following us around the house. He was also house-broken which was a big plus.

On Thursday night, we put Shadow in the back yard and went to the Christmas parade. By the time we got home, he had ripped a panel off our gate and was long gone. We figured he had gone to look for his old home and with no collar/tags of our number, didn't have much hope for getting him back. Cameron was devastated! He cried for ages that night and the next morning.

Friday, we were putting up Christmas lights and Dale gets a text from one of the ladies at work saying she saw him a few blocks away. Cameron and I hopped in the car and drove around but had no luck finding him. Suddenly Dale calls and tells me to put Cameron on, then Face-timed him to show him that Shadow had come home! It was Cameron's Christmas wish that Shadow would come back.

Since then, this dog has ripped our blinds to shreds a few times and is a master escape artist...finding various ways to get out of his crate! He has also pulled more panels off the gate and tried to jump the fence so we have to keep a close eye on him. He has become so much happier in the time we've had him, and is no longer terrified. We've lost a few stuffed animals and little toys to this rascal, but the kids have handled the responsibility pretty well.

If he wasn't such a sweet dog, with endless patience for our kids and such a calm demeanor with all of us, I don't think he would've become a member of our family. He's trusting us more and is hopefully realizing that we won't abandon him...and hopefully is done ruining our blinds. All of the kids love him, and he's a fun little guy.