No dog (yet)

I'm glad I waited until today to write this, as yesterday I wouldn't have put the 'yet' on the end - I was pretty grumpy. Today's recap will be much more even-headed. The story is they're worried about biting, and aren't comfortable releasing him for adoption. They're looking into placing him with a rescue or other program where he can get some training. It's amazing how attached we became without even meeting him - just seeing him through a door. I completely didn't realize it, but driving home just felt empty, despite knowing it was really for the best in all sorts of ways (no dog in the middle of the week, no behavior problems we aren't experienced dealing with) I think it didn't help that the decision was passed to us second hand - if we'd met him, and seen that he didn't have the personality we wanted it would have been a lot easier than having to take someone's word. Not that I don't completely understand why they did it, it's just...harder. There is so much trust in this process, and trust is hard, particularly trusting strangers. We trust the shelter to tell us the truth, to faithfully represent things, to act in our best interest, to keep the dogs as healthy and sane as they can. The shelter trusts us to be who we say we are, to really care and give the dog a good home. We both trust the dog to show his true personality, to bond with us, to not do anything dangerous even in crazy strange situations. The dog trusts us with, well everything. It's tough. None of us have any reason to trust. And it's big things, it's not like trusting someone to remember to buy milk and you can just sigh and pick it up later. It's big things. So you put up walls to try to keep from having to trust, you call references, you make up wild stories in your mind about what nutcases these people must be, and read way, way way to much into stupid details*. But it doesn't work, the walls just make everyone cranky, since now they have to stand up on these big ladders to talk to each other, and when they're done, the trust is still waiting for them on the other side of the wall. You have to do it, you have to trust this person. Wow, I think I let that metaphor get away from me there a little bit. Back to us. At least today, I can trust them that the dog wasn't stable, that they have good methods in place to test these things, and decided that it wasn't an isolated, freak thing, but a real pattern or tendency. I can agree that it is better that he gets experienced training rather than coming in with new dog owners. But yesterday? Yesterday I was all about whomever he bit must have been asking for it, just because a dog once touches its teeth to someone doesn't mean it's a killing machine, what lawsuit-scared wusses these people must be, do they think we're idiots? I'm glad I didn't write that entry. Like I said, it's hard. So, we have two appointments pending to meet with akita(mix)s. I was thinking they would probably be Friday and Saturday, but we haven't heard back yet, so maybe not. Sunday is another event. After than I think we start talking to breed rescue. Also - craigslist score! Two baby gates for $10, right on the way home. Also, the kids at the house were super-cute. They were all about showing me their veggie garden. Tomatoes! Strawberries! Bell Peppers! *I do not mean by this that any and all due-diligence, fact checking &c. is inappropriate, just that when all is said and done, no matter how hard you've looked, you still have to trust the person.