The Adoption of Our First Rescue-Porter

Porter Before We Met Him

We picked up Porter at an adoption fair in December of 2018. Our beloved lab had died two months before and, obviously, we were bereft, spending the afternoons walking the dog walking route (with no dog) and openly crying about it.

We wanted to travel and we were getting married in the summer and were very busy so we had decided NO NEW DOGS.

This lasted for a few weeks until I read @Brandon McMillan's Lucky Dog Lessons after walking by it at the library. I then devoured all of the seasons of Lucky Dog and yeah...pretty much after that I thought I WAS NOW Brandon McMillan and qualified to train a dog.

Lucky Dog Lessons by Brandon McMillan

One particularly gloomy day, missing our dog and hoping to adopt a new, tiny dog, without my husband noticing, I tried to sneak out the door to go to an adoption fair to meet a Bijon mixed named "Tulip" and to otherwise"just to look around." Similar to trying to go to Costco and "just look around," I knew there was only one likely conclusion to this excursion.

My husband (fiance at the time) noticed that I had put on makeup, was not crying, and was trying to exit the house voluntarily. He put two and two together pretty quickly realized I was about to impulse purchase a dog. Being the voice of logic, he reminded me of all the reasons why getting a dog right now was a bad idea (wedding, trips planned, money...), but I was a woman on a mission and could not be stopped. He reluctantly took a ride with me hoping to contain the damage.

Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation

Our local rescue (Lost Dog Rescue) pairs up with Petsmart to put on adoption fairs. I walked into that Petsmart and forgetting that I had lied and said "I was just looking around," and I "had no plan," walked straight over to meet & greet for Tulip. There was already a line for Tulip and my visit with her did not go well. She growled at me while her handler clutched her to her chest and said "I think this visit is over." Despite the dirty liar that I was, my husband took pity on me, pointed to Porter, and said "Aw, look at that shepherd." He was sitting up and kind of looking friendly and energetic but I was having none of it. Sulking, I walked through the adoption fair to look around at the other dogs, half-heartedly.

My husband did finally go over to say "hi" to Porter while I stood off a few feet being like "he's okay, I guess," while his handler told us that he was a good boy and laid back and doing well in shelter. Porter was biting the shit out of my husband's hand while my husband was playing with him, and a look of sadness and happiness crossed my husband's face that made me be like "WE'LL TAKE HIM." We hemmed and hawed a bit after that, but there was really no way I was leaving him there even though I had intended to get A TINY BRUNCH DOG and instead we were leaving with A BITEY 50 LB DOG WHO WASN'T EVEN THAT CUTE.

Porter at the House

The rescue interviewed us, gave us some information and some kibble, and off we went. I had read my all my Brandon McMillan books and I was sure that whatever this dog was going to throw at me, I would be up for it. This moment would mark the beginning of my realizing what a naive idiot I was.

Porter 1st Car Ride