"You know, I thought he was a lot smaller."

On this day, 11 years ago, I read an article in my local paper about a poor dog that had been given to the humane society in our community when its' owners moved away and couldn't keep him.  The article said it was an older dog, and a private donor was willing to pay for the dog's upkeep if someone with a yard could take him.  I called the Phenom and read the article over the phone.  We decided to visit the humane society that afternoon.

When we arrived, we were introduced to the volunteer in charge of adoptions.  She was busy with the afternoon play/kennel clean/feed.  They would release 5-8 dogs into the play yard and clean their kennels, place clean bedding, refill food and water bowls, and then bring the dogs in from the play yard.  One dog in the batch coming in didn't come in.  So, we followed her out to the play yard to corral him back in.  This cute, little dog came charging over to us with a ball in his mouth.  We threw the ball and he went bounding after it . . . and returned right to us.  Within a minute, Phenom was kissing it on the head.  Our rule is "you kissed it, you bought it."

So we filled out the paperwork.  We must have passed muster, because a couple days later, they called to say we'd been approved to adopt Chester.  (Side note, today I read this article about the screening processes of some rescue groups.)  We bought a kennel and dogloo and toys and a collar and leash and harness we could use to seat belt him into the car and food and toys and a brush and toys.

The next afternoon, Phenom collected our new family member while I had a meeting.  Yes, I was jealous I didn't get to be part of the pick up.  But, I arrived home just minutes after Phenom and Chester.  While we watched Chester tear around our yard like a pardoned inmate, we looked at each other and both said "You know, I thought he was a lot smaller."

Chester is a fun loving, sweet, hyper pooch that is pretty much like having a perpetual 4 year old boy.  He explores the yard, doesn't always come when called, likes to pester cats, prefers junk food to his meals, doesn't like to share his toys or people, and has been worth every minute.

Happy Adoption Day, Chester!