Written by Lisa Klobuchar
Meanwhile, I was emailing back and forth with a One Tail foster coordinator, having no luck finding a match. “Yes, I’ll take her.” “Sorry she’s bigger than you want.” “I could take one of those.” “No, they’re already in foster.” I was starting to wonder if this foster thing was ever going to happen. Finally, on July 12, I got a group email calling for foster commitments for a mass rescue at CACC. I replied that I could take any dog under 25 pounds. On July 13, I received an email with the photo on the left below: ”We just welcomed this guy today. He needs a home without other dogs for now just due to him having kennel cough but should be just fine with parrots.” I replied, “A little medical issue doesn't faze me. I could take him.” It was the weekend of the Pitchfork Music Festival, so they named all the dogs after the musicians in the line-up. On July 17th, I picked up Killer Mike at Higgins Animal Clinic. He was stinky, and nervous, and had the weirdest scraggly curly tail I’d ever seen. I thought, “Boy, my first time out and I sure got an ugly one!” Green rookie that I was, I assumed that the clinic staff would have walked him prior to my arrival, so I carried him from my car straight up to my apartment. His first order of business was to do his business on my rug. The next was to explore every inch of my apartment, quickly finding my basket of massage balls. He chose a tennis ball, jumped up on the couch next to me and looked at me with smiling eyes that said, with crystal clarity, “Hey, this is going to be fun!”
A few days later I got an email from One Tail. “We'll likely have him join us at the Adoption Center in a couple days as I think he'd be adopted quickly . . . ” My stomach dropped to my knees. I remember thinking, with a touch of anger, “There will be no ‘joining at the adoption center’!” Still, I had had no intention of adopting a dog. I didn’t feel I could afford one. I didn’t know if I’d could make a dog happy. I was afraid of the grief that inevitably comes too few years in the future to anyone who gives their heart to a dog. I didn’t know what to do. I consulted friends and family. I was in anguish at the thought of him leaving me, but in serious doubt about whether I could care for a dog. Finally my friend Trish said the one thing that cleared up all the fog: “I can’t tell you whether you’ll regret NOT keeping him. But I can tell you that you’ll NEVER regret keeping him.”
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REAL DOG MOMS OF CHICAGOOur goal is to connect dog rescues, dog-friendly businesses & dog lovers. Based in Chicago, Illinois, we host fun events for dogs & humans at great places with all proceeds going to local dog rescues. Archives
November 2022
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