Happy Anniversary, Tinkywink!

If you follow my blog, you are well aware that I am rather mad about my dogs.  If you are new to my blog, be warned; I am rather mad about my dogs.  I will do plenty of posts about cooking, crafting, cleaning and the like, but in addition there will be plenty of dogs.

We have two pups, a four year old Terrier Schnauzer mix named Molly, who is possibly the most beautiful dog in the world.  And then there is Tinky Wink, a purebred Yorkshire Terrier.  Both of our dogs are rescues; Molly came from a home that was no longer able to care for her, and we adopted her when she was four months old.  She is so spoiled and has been with us for so long that I really don't think she has any memory of her early life.  Tinky is another story...

Tinky came into our life this time last year.  We were reading our local paper; it's a weekly that comes out on Fridays, and it always has a "Pet of the Week" column featuring an animal from the local shelter.  We had seen many dogs and cats featured over the months, and   we always hoped that they would find happy homes.  This particular Friday, however, something about the picture made us stop and take a second look.

The picture was a of a very small, scruffy, panicked looking dog.  Wild eyes peered out from the pulpy newsprint.  We had no idea what breed he was.  We did, however, feel very strongly that we should go and bring him home.

We spent a long night discussing the pros and cons.  But no matter how many "cons" we came up with, there was always a "pro" to counter them.  We were resolved; we would go and adopt the strange little dog from the paper.

The next day, a Saturday, we headed for the shelter.  A volunteer brought us the dog, who immediately jumped into my husband's arms and snuggled in.  He was very scruffy and grubby, and he smelled like shelter.  But there was something sweet and compelling about him, and he seemed determined to stay with my husband.

We turned to the volunteer and announced that we were ready to take him home.  But this was not to be.  We were informed that only the manager could approve adoptions, and she wouldn't be in until Monday.  We would have to wait a day and a half to bring our new boy home.  We felt like the world's biggest meanies as we gently handed back the little guy, and left the shelter with his outraged howls echoing in our ears.

On Monday, we waited on pins and needles for 1:00 PM to arrive.  We were terribly anxious that something would have happened to him over the weekend, or that someone else might come along and scoop him up.  We arrived at the shelter at 12:59 (with an increasingly suspicious Molly in tow) and went in to make our case.  

Well, he was still there.  We were informed that we would have to foster him for two weeks, and if that went well he would be ours.  This policy makes good sense, especially for households with other pets.  Throughout the process of filling in the paper-work, we heard the volunteers referring to the pup as "the little Yorkie that barks all the time."  We looked at each other.  Yorkie?  We were sure they must be mistaken; the sad little creature huddled once again in my husband's arms looked a far cry from the fancy little dogs we knew to be Yorkies.  However, once he was home, bathed, and with a belly full of Little Cesar, his ears popped up and we indeed had a Yorkie!  In fact, during the process of many cuddles and belly rubs, we discovered an ID number tattooed on his stomach.  Our scruffy little shelter dog was a purebred!

The two weeks passed quickly and soon we were back at the shelter, signing adoption papers and paying his fee.  We were smitten with our new dog.  We had a lot of fun getting him acclimatized to our home, but there were challenges.  Adopting a rescue isn't always easy. Over the next few weeks, we discovered Tinky had food aggression issues, barked a lot, and was a flight risk (this resulted in many pajama clad dashes up the street for me).  Over the past year, we have worked out most of his issues and now he is a plump, spoiled, silly little toy of a dog who loves to put on his sweater and go for a walk, or snuggle against one of us as we watch TV.  He's a little old dude (between 7 and 10) and so we tend to baby him a lot.  However, as time went by he lost a lot of the weaknesses he had when we brought him home.  He is well established in our home and we honestly can't imagine life without him.

Tinky Wink Today

And so, Happy Anniversary, Tinkywink!  It's been a wonderful year; I hope we have many more.