Anyone Want A Dog?

Most of you know our "boys" are very much part of our little family. Abe has been getting older and older and we've been thinking he may be in his last few months. I have wanted to be a foster home for the shelter for a while now, but we decided that the best thing to do would be the wait until Abe has passed, because we don't know how well he would do with a young and energetic dog in the house. Even mellow Horton, at nearly 10 years, can be a little much for Abe at times. And being that most dogs at the shelter are younger, it just didn't seem like the right thing to foster. So we decided our little family should remain just the four of us.
I should know that anytime you make a decision in life, or talk about something like it's a sure thing, life circumstances will immediately change to prove you wrong. Last night I got a phone call from Jesse. It went like this:

Me: Hey!
J: I have a dog and it's coming home with me.

It was a stray, running around the university campus (which sits smack in in the middle of very busy city roads). No collar and no microchip. (By the way, what is up with people? - if you have a dog, it needs at the very, very least, a collar with your contact info or a rabies tag with your vet's info.) She most definitely has some Shar Pei in her, and possibly some Chesapeake Bay Retriever. And she stinks like chemicals or pesticides or something. I can't wait to give her a bath. She doesn't have fleas, but she has been itching a lot, which makes me wonder if someone either applied something to her coat to kill some insect that has left little itchy bites on her, or if she is itching because she's having a reaction to whatever chemical thing they put on her. Anyway, Jesse posted everywhere online about this doggie and put up signs in the area he found it, but we have had no one contact us.

So that leaves us wondering what to do. We have a few options....I could try to get her into the system at the shelter I work with, but I know last weekend when I was there, they were jammed full. I could take it to work and kennel it there until we find a home, but they don't really do much screening of people the same way that a potential owner at the shelter would be screened - just different mentalities and reasons for existing. Or we could keep it. Or I could see if the shelter will at least put it in their system and then we could foster it. We don't know. We decided we will wait until tomorrow to see if anyone contacts us and then decide from there.

In the meantime, we have been trying to decide what to call her until we decide. So far we have tried Tango, Brown, and Monkey, but are having a hard time finding a name that seems fitting. Any ideas???

Horton and Abe are being very hospitable, as they always are with other doggies. In fact, she fits in quite well. She even "knocks" on the back door to come back in just like Horton and Abe. This morning she and Horton played and played and when I peeked out the window, they were terribly cute taking a breather together.

I didn't really see much of her last night, because by the time Jesse got home with her, I was pretty much ready to go to sleep. So, when I got up this morning I wasn't sure how she would react to me. But, she sat down beside me and snuggled right up against my leg as soon as I got up. Kind of makes it hard to not start getting attached.


Anyway, I have a feeling she is not going to be reunited with her original owner since we have had no luck at all with that route. So....anyone want a dog?