One More Mouth to Feed

Today we got a dog. I did not plan on getting a dog this soon, but I also didn’t plan on having cats already, either. Let alone cats that get attacked by coyotes.

Yep, you read that right. One of our free cats is now a several-hundred-dollar-cat. Something grabbed Loosey by the back legs last week and tore them up pretty bad. We think it was a coyote, since we can hear them at night and we’ve seen a couple crossing the road. I have trouble with putting pets “down” or forcing them to suffer it out when there’s a way to help them, so we took Loosey to the vet for surgery and now she’s doing fine. Our savings account is not doing fine. We don’t want to encounter that cost again, or have more cats disappear. Or worse, actually, to have coyotes decide they feel comfortable coming up onto our yard to search for food. So we got a dog.

Orchlen’s (seriously, I love that place) had a sign up for a free dog. We called the man and asked some questions about demeanor and history, and it sounded like a good fit. And then we got to the farm the dog was staying at and found out that I used to work with the man’s wife. Seems like a good sign, right? So now we have Sammy, a gentle eight-year-old heeler mix that likes kids, leaves cats alone, and enjoys playing fetch. And so far she’s only barking at coyotes. It’s sooner than I would have liked, but we were lucky to find such a good (and free) fit.