Skip to main content

An Office Affair



I have a problem, I am having an office affair. I have a dog, his name is Parker and he is a 10 year old border collie mix. He came into the shelter in Richmond as a nervous dog who had spent the first 7 months on a chain in a back yard. He never spent a day in the kennel, I took him home immediately. Parker soon became my pet and the Richmond SPCA's education dog. I taught him a bunch of tricks and he would go with me to all the school and group visits to highlight how wonderful pets from the SPCA/Humane society can be. And he is special. He has been in a number of TV commercials, he was featured on an Animal Planet show called Adoption Stories and has been in a number of newspapers and magazines. As far as pets go, he is the love of my life. He is the first one to meet me at the door when I get home and if I just walk out to lets say take the trash out, he acts like he hasn't seen me in years and would die with out me. It is a mutual relationship of pure love.

So what a surprise when Angel, a border collie mix, came along. I see many pets come and go and I may have an instant attraction to them and I flirt with the idea of taking them home, but none have captured my heart like Angel. It is a bit crazy because she resembles Parker, physically, but is very different in terms of personality. Angel has been hanging around the office area during the day, she sleeps under my desk, greets me at the door with a wiggle and dance of excitement, enjoys meeting people and dogs that come to visit and is basically what I like to call my office pet. I must admit though she isn't just mine. Lori, our operations manager, is as much in love with her as I am and Angel adores her as well.

It is no surprise that I took Angel home to see how she and Parker would get along. Angel was nervous at first with my Son and husband, which is her M.O. with new people. But after one night she fit right in with the other humans. But, it was funny to see Parker and her trying to figure each other out. Soon competition began and we quickly learned that Angel likes to guard her objects of desire from Parker and unfortunately, that was me and any food item that hit the floor. Angel came back to the shelter.

Thus is why the title of this blog entry is an office affair. I feel guilty loving another dog as much as Parker during the day and then leaving her at night to come home to Parker. Friday of last week I brought Parker in to see if they could try getting along one more time and she was the ruler of the roost, letting Parker know that I and the office was hers not his. Parker was miserable all day with the power plays. No fights ensued but the stares Angel gave him were strong warnings.

Finding Angel a new home would be ideal, but it will take a very special person to deserve her. Thinking about her leaving creates a mini panic attack in me and I know will result in a broken heart. Angel deserves more than being an office affair and I know eventually she will leave us for her own family but for now I will enjoy having her around and sharing my heart with her.

Comments

  1. tedhuntApril 4, 2010 at 10:40 AM

    LHS has a shelter office cat....why not a shelter office dog to make it fair?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Becky GApril 4, 2010 at 4:50 PM

    I agree with 'tedhunt' that it would only be fair to have an office dog along with the office cat .... but, with Angel guarding what she believes belongs to 'her', she wouldn't get along with ANY dog, not just Parker.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Makena YarbroughApril 4, 2010 at 10:54 PM

    The interesting thing is Becky, she is great cats and with other dogs in general it is just a problem over food primarily. She is the best I have seen with puppies, very motherly, and she really does well reading other dogs and knowing how to play with them. I think Parker being a guarder as well caused the problems to be aggravated. I honestly want her to find the right home because in the long run, it is what is best for her.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Becky GApril 4, 2010 at 11:14 PM

    She sounds like a very special dog, and her being able to 'read other dogs' is wonderful. I do hope she finds the right owner who will give her lots of TLC like you (and Lori) have done.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IS LHS UNDER ATTACK?

In 2013 the Lynchburg Humane Society (LHS) ended the year with a 92% save rate for the animals in our care, the highest year end figure since we began down the path to No Kill.   We were able to reduce the number of cats we took in by 294, compared to 2012, due primarily, we believe, to our spay/neuter efforts.   YOU made this possible.    We believe the Lynchburg Humane Society is about to be embroiled in a controversial attack by another humane organization because of all the great work we are doing.   We want our community and our supporters to know why and to be informed about this controversy because without you we could not do what we are doing.   You all are partners in our efforts.     This is long so please hang in there and read it in its entirety because there is important information throughout that you probably don’t know.    In April PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) sent us a letter asking us to change some of our life saving programs i
49 comments
Read more

They know what they know so don’t give them the facts.

I had the pleasure of having an interesting conversation with a member of another humane organization this past weekend. They are an SPCA that takes in animals for a number of localities and operates as the pound for their area. She asked how we were doing in Lynchburg and I, of course, was excited to tell her about our recent success about our save rate being 84% and having no healthy animal lose their life in our shelter in 2010 and how much the community has embraced the changes as we move toward becoming No Kill. She immediately went to defense mode and asked me loaded questions to prove I was wrong and of course explain to me how our programs wouldn’t work for them. The appointment system, wouldn’t work – pet owners aren’t responsible enough to do the right thing. People must be just “dumping” their animals in other localities.” Fact : The counties that reported their stats for 2010 in the Lynchburg area saw a reduction in the number of animals they took in and more
15 comments
Read more

Rumors can be funny sometimes

Rumors really crack us up or make us super frustrated. This Tuesday morning we got a phone call that made us all laugh out loud.  One of our partnering vet clinics in Chatham has had a few of their clients share that they heard the State Police was at the Pet Center assisting David Smitherman with removing animals on Monday, July 30th. A few clients suggested it happened last Thursday.     We had one dog leave the Pet Center on Thursday through adoption. Monday we did transfer 11 dogs and 14 cats to the Lynchburg Center, which we featured on facebook Tuesday afternoon.  We also transferred to the Lynchburg’s Center 7 cats and 6 dogs from the Appomattox shelter.  This year the Lynchburg location has seen 375 pets transferred internally from the other two facilities.  Why?  Why not?  This past weekend Lynchburg adopted out 71 pets.  Pittsylvania only adopted out 12 from Friday - Sunday.  Pets are not getting adopted as quickly in the other counties so when we have space and w
2 comments
Read more