Say Hello to Lucky the Dog

So…I took last Friday afternoon off and met my sister and my niece {Presley} at the mall for lunch. As soon as we met up, Presley started in, “Please, Aunt Deb, will you come to the pet store with me? I want to show you the cute dogs and cats! Pleeeeeaasssse.” I thought it would be a good chance for me to spend a little time with Pres, since we rarely get to see each other, so we sent my sister off to do her own shopping, and we headed for the pet store.

I wish I had taken a photo {or a video} of my eight-year old niece skipping in front of me, leading the way back to the pet store where she’d already been that morning. Animals make this girl crazy-happy, and she knew the way back to the pet store.

Right away, I spotted a little calico cat alone and sad looking. My heart-strings were seriously tugged, and I took a photo to show Doug later on.

Presley led me through the store. “Look at this one, Aunt Deb! Oh! And THIS one!!! Oh, sooooooo cute! Hello, little cat. Awwwww, hello, little puppy…” It was breaking her heart to see those sad little guys in cages!

My attempts to leave the store kept falling on deaf ears, so I set the timer on my phone for three minutes and told her to make another quick round because when the timer went off, we were out of there! On our way out, we noticed that one of the little dogs had been pulled from his cage and was in the center petting area. Presley and I both went over to pet him, and I took a photo for Doug to see. Just because.

When we got back to our house I showed Doug the photos I had taken of the little calico cat. I asked, and he agreed, that we’d go back the following day and if the cat was still there we’d bring her home.

Flipping through the photos on my phone, I said, “Oh yeah, and there was this cute little dog…looks like he has a little Queensland Healer or Australian Shepherd in him…”

Within a half an hour Doug and I were back in the car, with Presley along for the ride, headed back to the mall to see about this little dog. Long story made a little shorter: we adopted him and brought him home that day. 

{Yes, he sports a teal collar}

Here’s what we know about him: He appears to be a dachshund mix – looks a lot like the slinky dog from Toy Story. He’s 24 pounds, about four years old, and spent the majority of February in the County Animal Control facility. The Arizona Animal Welfare League rescues animals whose time is “running out” at the pound, and brings them to their store on the mall for adoption. Our little dog had just arrived that afternoon, and we were happy to get him the heck out of that cage.

And he was happy too! He’s a sweet little dog and very mellow. He wasn’t impressed with the neighborhood cat {Hobo Joe} and immediately chased him out of our backyard, but when it comes to Whiskers, he's cool - and Whiskers seems very relaxed about our new roommate as well.

We kicked around a few names and finally settled on Lucky.
Oh, but make no mistake, the dog isn’t the only lucky one around here.
♥