The Smith Family: Such a Sucker

I am a total sucker when it comes to homeless dogs. I used to drive my mom crazy because every time I would see a dog running around I would put it in our backyard and call the owner or have the Humane Society come and get them. Well, it happened again. I was on the phone with my sister at around 9:00 last night and she proceeds to tell me that a last dog has run up to her and jumped into her car. She said the dog was friendly, but very skinny and he didn't have any tags. It seemed like he had been lost for a long time. After a while she puts the dog in the backyard with some water, but she didn't have any food for him. I told her that I would be over in a minute to bring him some. When we got there I was absolutely shocked at how skinny this dog was. I mean, I watch the animal rescue shows all the time and see it, but I have never seen one in person. It broke my heart. To make matters even worse he was SO friendly! Courtney, Matt and myself were talking about what to do with the dog when Matt suggests, "Let's take him home with us." Now, I love dogs, but I knew exactly what Matt was up to. He was already attached and he thought that by taking the dog home that I would want to keep him. Just a little side note, Matt and I have had several talks about getting another dog, but have come to the same conclusion every time. A new baby and 2 dogs is more than we care to handle. Needless to say, we brought the dog home with the intention of housing him for a night or two until the shelters open on Monday. We introduced him to Katie and things seemed to go well and then we brought him inside to let him cool off and give him some food and water. He instantly made himself right at home. All in all, things were looking good. He was pretty docile and didn't try to pee in the house. We even decided that we were going to call him Lou (after Lou Amundson). After seeing how good he was, we thought that we could let him sleep in the house for the night, but he would need to stay in the bathroom. Apparently, Lou had different ideas. We shut the door, headed to our room and started getting ready for bed. Not 2 minutes later, Lou started whining. I am not talking little whimpers here. I am talking full on 70 year old man sobs. It was RIDICULOUS! After letting it go on for about 15 minutes we caved and let him out. We figured we could let him sleep in our room as long as we blocked him off at the doorway. After that things were much more peaceful. Both dogs did great. They slept through the night and there was no pee, poop or destruction of any kind. He has been in the house all day and I have to admit that he has fit right in. Aside from being a very pretty dog, he is extremely well behaved. We have been working very hard to get him to eat all day, but he pretty much only wants chicken. At this point I will give him whatever he wants as long as he is eating. The poor thing needs to gain about 10-15 lbs! (My guess is that when he is at a healthy weight he will be somewhere around 100 lbs...Yikes!). After 2 baths he is starting to look a little better, but he has a ways to go. In the mean time, Matt seems really keen on keeping him. I am still a little unsure, but we'll see. Either way, I plan on keeping him until we can get him healthy again. Maybe by then I will change my mind?