Hey guys.  Thanks as always for the kind words and shared experiences.  Today is 2 months since Wally passed so that has kind of killed my enthusiasm on finding another dog for today at least.  I'm sure I'll be past it and having some more look sees here soon.  I'm kind of surprised STAF (where Howard is and I got Wally from) hasn't reached back out with any possible matches or asked me to schedule some time.  Although they have an announcement on their website from May saying they aren't allowing visitors in the shelter, so that may still be in tact.  I should probably reach out to them over the weekend.

The shelter Jorge was at announced they were closing in Sept. but would still work to find homes for their current dogs.  So between that along with them not making many FB posts or having any adoption events probably had a lot to do with it.  But still, I'm really surprised I was his only inquiry.  Oh well, like you said Renee - Jorge had already found his human.  I'm still a little disappointed, but happy for him and his mom.

I do have to admit that the Boxer lover in me wants to inquire about this poor girl, who found her way to the shelter b/c her owner passed away .

Luna

Thanks again and happy Friday!

Hey guys.  To clarify STAF did get back with me on my initial application and inquiry on Howard, but some of their volunteers work to match their dogs with perspective owners and they haven't reached out on that front.  Although the ball is somewhat in my court as I said I'd look through the profiles on their other dogs and see if any of them other than Howard piqued my interest, and I haven't gotten back with them yet on that.

Anyway, I actually got back to it this weekend.  I just sent a message on Luna (the Boxer from KY not the tripawd from NY), and yesterday I submitted an application for Walter the Bulldog (linked below) and talked to his foster mom.  He's obviously as cute as can be and his story really pulls at the heart strings.  The poor guy was abandoned in a home and guessing by some of his issues (he's food aggressive and timid/anxious around strangers) he was underfed and abused as well.  His foster did say that he has come a LONG way since they took him in and started working with him, and she thinks he'll be a great dog but he'll probably be pretty challenging and need a lot of work at first.  So debating on whether or not I'm up for that.  I'd still like to meet him though, so I'll plan on doing that and take it from there.

Walter

Sally - thanks for posting on tripawd Luna.  She does look a lot like Howard and seems like a great dog.  But Long Island is a crazy long drive from where I live (Cincinnati), especially during a pandemic.

Hope you guys are having a good weekend and I'll keep you updated.

I appreciate the offers to help, but let's not get carried away here.  I'd much rather prefer to adopt a dog within driving distance, so I can meet them first and preferably have a trial period.  And there are plenty of dogs in my area in need of a home, including this tripawd here:

Truck

So I did get a response on Luna the Boxer, but unfortunately I think her rescue (or supposed rescue) might be a scam.  For starters the application link on her Petfinder profile takes you to their profile on adoptapet.com where there's no application form or a link to one.  No biggy really, and I sent them a message from Luna's page on that site.  They emailed me ~2 hours later with the application, which I filled out and emailed back to them. Pretty standard form: name, email, phone, address, vet reference, personal reference, etc.

After that is when it got weird.  They emailed me about ~1/2 hour later saying I have been approved and that they'd have someone on site at 5 if I wanted to drive down and meet Luna.  For starters they couldn't have checked my vet reference b/c my vet is closed on Sundays.  Also, I got ahold of my personal reference a little later and they had not contacted him either.  The email also said to give them a call to schedule a meet and greet and their normal hours are Wed.-Sat. from 8-5.  So I called that number and just got a voicemail, which their outgoing VM message was the digital voice default "Hello.  Please leave a message".  The rescue is supposedly at a pet spa called Fairytails Pet Spaw ("rescue" is named Fairytails Pet Adoptions), and the number on their email is the same number as the Spa.  So you'd think their VM message would at least identify the business and hours.  So that's red flag #2.  So then I decided to Google Fairytails Pet Spaw, and while it popped up on the search their website is no longer active and the domain is for sale (red flag #3).  

On the other hand both the rescue's and spa's FB pages look legit and super active.  I did leave them a message on their VM, so think I should wait and see if they call back or try calling later in the week to see if I can talk to someone?  If the place actually exists it's outside of Lexington, KY which is about an hour and a half drive.  So I just can't swing by at any time, and I probably won't be able to drive down until 2 weekends from now since I have to head home for the holiday next weekend.

Yeah, something definitely seems not right.  They haven't asked for any money and there's no mention about a deposit or anything like that; they just list a typical adoption fee.  And as mentioned their FB pages seem legit (both the rescue and the pet spa).  I kind of want to give them the benefit of the doubt and would hate for them to be harassed, etc. if they are a legitimate rescue.  Thinking maybe I'll call the Lexington Humane Society tomorrow and ask them.

Also, I do have some news on Walter as someone from the shelter called me today, but the call was intended for my vet.  This was my fault as I entered my number as the vets number (doh!).  Really surprised I did that, as I'm usually really thorough on these sorts of things.  The lady was really nice about it though and said she has had other people do this as well and thinks it's because the form auto-fills your number in there and you skip over it.  Guessing that's probably what happened to me.  Anyway, I gave her the number for my vet along with answering a couple of questions, and she said she'd give them a call as intended and if things check out then I'll be hearing from Walter's foster mom again this week.