Cheyenne's Pages

The Cheyenne Story - part 4 - The Adoption:

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     A couple days later, there was a message on our answering machine. The dog was going up for adoption that weekend, and if we were interested, we should call before then. We talked about it for only a couple minutes and decided we had to do it. We called the shelter and made the arrangements. We would go in on Thursday night and fill out all the paperwork and we could have her by the weekend. After I hung up the phone, I started thinking seriously about what we were doing. We didn't know anything about the dog. She seemed fine when we walked her around, but how would she behave in our little apartment. We never even asked the landlord if we could have a dog. They had a big bouvier named Grizelda. How would she like another dog on the same property? I think I had a little anxiety attack, but Stephanie assured me that everything was going to be OK.

     We checked with the landlord. We had been there for five years, and had been model tenants, so he had few reservations about it. He just said that we were liable for any damage the dog did, which we figured was fair. We figured then that we would just wing it and see what happens. We spent the next couple days discussing names for the dog. We never really agreed on a name, figuring that it would come to us when we were with her. Maybe name her something that went along with her personality.

     Thursday came and we were going to see the dog for the first time since we found her almost three weeks before. I didn't think she'd recognize us. In fact, I was a little worried that I wouldn't recognize her! We went to the shelter in the evening to fill out all the paperwork. It was then that we found out that they had actually talked to the previous owner, and he didn't want the dog any more! The woman at the counter said that she was the one who actually talked to the previous owner. She said that he was very ignorant to her on the phone. In fact, she said he sounded like he was drunk. He didn't want anything to do with the dog at all, and refused to give any information about the dog. She said that she had to "trick" the guy just to get the dog's name, which was Cheyenne.

     Cheyenne. At the time, our dining room was decorated in a southwestern theme, so Cheyenne kind of fit right in. And it was a pretty unique name in itself. We both liked it.

     "Would you like to meet her?" the woman asked. Stephanie and I looked at each other, smiled, and said "Yes!"

     They took us in the back of the shelter, to the main room that was filled with row after row of cages, all about waist-high. I don't remember seeing much, since I was concentrating on the room in the middle of the main room that they used as a "get acquainted" area. We went in and waited a couple minutes, and they brought Cheyenne in. She hesitated a little, but when we started talking to her, she seemed to relax. She sniffed around the room, checked us out, and seemed to be a calm pup. After a couple minutes they came to get her and we didn't want to let her go, but we told her that we would be back soon.

     We left the "get acquainted" room and headed back to the front desk. It was then that I noticed the occupants of the cages. It looked almost like something you would see in a prison film. All the dogs in the cages were looking down the aisle at us as we walked by. It was a little creepy and Stephanie started to cry a little. We got to the front and finished filling out the paperwork and gave them a check and planned what was to happen. One of the rules of this particular shelter was that any animal adopted would have to be neutered, which was not a problem for us. They said that the doctor would check her out on Friday, and do any procedures necessary, and she would be ready for us to pick her up on Saturday. We left there thrilled, almost unable to wait until Saturday. We were almost the proud parents of a bouncing not-so-baby pup!

On to part 5 -->

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