Near Miss

So the other day my across-the-street neighbor came over and told me I need a dog. Anyone who knows me knows that the last thing on my list of needs is a dog. I'm not an animal person. Never really felt the need. And especially at this point in my life when my family's basic needs are barely being met, I certainly have no business bringing another thing to care for into my life. So I proceded to tell my neighbor, Amanda this. She told me she has a friend who has a wonderful dog but recently had a baby and doesn't have the room anymore. She went on and on about what a great dog it is and wouldn't my kids love a dog? Yes, I agreed that they would love a dog, but I told her our horror story of our last dog, Morgan, and how she wouldn't stay in the yard, barked at innocent people walking by and scared them to death, followed my kids to school but didn't know her way home so I would have to go pick her up, she followed my kids' friends home on their bikes and I would have to go pick her up, and she chased cars and was even hit by three cars over the years, the last of which still didn't kill her but broke her spine and we had to have her put to sleep. Amanda assured me this dog was much better and is very well trained and even potty trained. She convinced me to just meet the dog, with no strings attached. What could be the harm in just meeting the dog, I thought.

Later that day Amanda, "Zoe" and her owners came to my house. The first thing I noticed was that the husband was carrying a very large bag of dog food. The second thing I noticed was how large Zoe was. Amanda had informed me that this was a medium-sized dog. If this was her version of medium, I'd hate to see large. Zoe was huge! She made herself right at home and began walking all over my house, from room to room to room. Granted, whenever the owners called her name she was obedient and came right back, but then she was off again. Each time she passed me her thick wagging tail whacked me in the legs powerfully. The owners began their pitches, telling me all the good points about Zoe. She's potty trained, gentle- even around their baby, she sleeps on their bed and lays on the couch and is just like a member of the family. In my mind I was thinking, "then why are you getting rid of her?" They didn't just want me to meet her, they wanted to leave her with me right then. Just the thought of it started giving me hives and heart palpitations.

I began saying that we would have to figure out how to get a way for her to sleep outside, etc., etc........

WAIT! The husband stopped me mid-sentence. Sleep outside? That would never do. He's raised her since birth and she's never slept outside a day in her life. The one thing that is a deal-breaker with him is that she can't be an outside dog. In the blink of an eye they picked up their jumbo-sized bag of food and escorted Zoe back outside to their car. WHEW! I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I waved good-bye. The luckiest part of all? It was 4:30 in the afternoon yet all of my kids were miraculously gone during this interaction so none of them even got to beg me to keep her or go look for another dog.

That was a near miss indeed.