Cloudy with a Chance of...Mustard!

Friends!! There is SO much to catch up on. But I really cannot wait to share our amazing news....

So here it is: we've finally adopted our new little guy-COLONEL MUSTARD!!! We are so grateful to have him and share our love with him! Here is our first pic of the little guy in his animal control leash:



Our dear friend Kari knew we wanted to adopt this weekend and that we were going to look on Saturday after a bloody mary brunch we were having with my co-worker T from my newer job. She called me early yesterday morning saying she found a little guy on petfinder.com at the LA County Animal Control shelter in Downey. We were going to look at a breed specific rescue shelter that keeps dogs who cant find homes for forever but this little 7 month old male beagle mix was at a kill shelter. So after we hussled through breakfast we rushed to Kari's place and loaded up in her jeep to go see little man numbered A4164806.

We took a little drive to the ghetto of LA (just outside Compton) and stopped off to meet our man. Kari had called animal control and listed me along with her phone number as an "interested part" and found out he was scheduled to go out to a pet store adoption fair. She had called the local stores and found out the fairs we Sunday not Saturday so if someone hadn't scooped him up yet there was a good chance he could be ours.

We rushed in, got a number (sat next to a pup who was brought in and was super sick and dying-BREAKING my heart), got up to the counter asked about our guy and went to the back buildings to see him. There were 7 barn-like shelters with 20 runs on each side housing 1-5 dogs per kennel. We walked down to building 6 kennel number 20. The place stank. And all those little guys and gals needing homes just breaks your heart. We saw our man and we knew-that was our guy. He came up to me after calling to him a little and his tail started wagging like crazy. It was love at first sniff!

We raced back to the intake building and asked where we could find and ATM (cash or check only), raced to 7/11, raced back and made it official. He became ours for a total of $41 ($30 adoption fee-he was neutered and was there for over 10 days, $10 licensing fee-good for 1 year, and $1 slip-leash fee). We took him over to the medical building to get antibiotics for his kennel cough and where he was micro-chipped. We went back to the main building to register the microchip and got our voucher for a free vet check-up and rabies shot (once medication is done) at our local shelter so we didn't have to come out so far.

We walked him out to the car and began the journey back home. We stopped off at our local great pet warehouse Collar and Leash and picked up the essentials (shampoo-he stunk BAAAAAAAAD, brush, collar, leash, harness-it has to be exchanged since it is a little too small, water and food bowls, soft pad for floor sitting, nyla-bone denta-dino t-rex, stuffed monkey, poop bags, training treats in herring flavor (to help with his dandruff), food in lamb & rice flavor and venison meal flavor from California Naturals brand, a rope toy, and a puppy kong. He was going to be a well-spoiled boy :D

We brought him home where the first step was bath time. He didn't seem happy about it but he behaved quite well only trying to jump ship twice (thank goodness for sliding doors on the shower. I was in there with my bathing suit to keep him comfy and to keep him calm. We dried and brushed him and took him on his first walk. Complete with starting training with positive reinforcement. Then we began training him for an hour on "Sit", "Come", and "Wait". He is doing so well!! He loves to train actually and is quite smart. He's on an hour and a half pee schedule. And breakfast is at 9am with dinner at 7pm to get him used to my work schedule (I'm SO glad he can come to work with me!!).

We just love him so much and cannot wait to continue being his pet parents for the rest of his life! This whole experience just made my heart want to burst with gladness!!! Our little family has grown and we're excited to begin this journey with him. Get ready for the best Christmas cards of your life too-you know it will be him in the kitchen with the rope (toy)!! ;)



Love to you all!!!