Meet Marley

We have a new member of the family, Marley, an almost 2 years old long-haired Chihuahua . He is the sweetest little dog. And Mr. “that’s not a dog” well, Marley falls asleep in his lap every evening and Mr. Man couldn't be happier.

We adopted Marley from Atlanta Pet Rescue, who initially rejected me (see my earlier blog). After getting over my shock at being rejected, I wrote two emails begging them to reconsider, after which Mr. Man, Maggie (our 14 year old dog) and I were invited to meet Marley and be interviewed by his foster mom.

APR is pretty tough in their assessment of potential adoptive familes...so much so that I have a hard time believing they find “forever” homes for many of their animals. I think of myself as an above-average pet owner, but obviously not in their eyes. I was really nervous going in for our interview. I wasn't sure if they would allow us to adopt Marley, and I told myself that I would accept it and look into other animal rescue organizations.

We arrived within minutes of their opening on Saturday morning, and I immediately saw Marley in one of the pens with several other small dogs. He was standing atop a stool, and I was able to fit my hand through the fence to pet him. We were waiting for his foster mom to read our application and the emails defending our pet etiquette. Once we talked to her for a while, it became pretty obvious that she was really attached to Marley and was hesitant to let him go; she repeatedly told us she'd really rather he went to a home with another small dog. Interestingly, she shared with us that she allowed Marley to sleep in the bed with her (a hard habit to break for those of us who don't allow dogs to sleep in our beds) and that she drives with him on her lap, much more dangerous than the risk of coyotes jumping over our fence in my opinion. Just a little fender bender can deploy the airbags...think about it, not a pretty picture. In the end though, we were deemed worthy of adopting him (we did promise to feed him premium food and never leave him outside unsupervised). We did so as quickly as possible, paid the $250 adoption fee, and headed for Pet Smart for food, toys, and a doggie bed and crate.

He has adjusted easily and the rest of the family (Maggie, Baily, Tito & Stella) have accepted him without much to-do.