It has now been three years since we both had to put down our family dogs – for different reasons, the timing was just coincidental.
My girl Rottweiler, Kahlua, was almost 10 years old. Her medical issues started getting worse and eventually it was time.
Stefan’s boy German Shepherd, Sam, was a rescue that he found when he was around ~ 2 years old, so they’re not entirely sure exactly how old he was, but they guessed around 10 years, give or take. He had had some medical issues as well, so about 3 months after Kahlua, it was Sam’s time. We had only been dating about a year at this point, but serious for only about 4-6 months and also right in the middle of Covid, so it was a hard situation for us both. We agreed at that time that it’d be a while until we added another dog to the family.
This past Christmas, we discussed finally being ready for a dog. It has been a few months of deciding on which breed, where to go, etc.
Last Saturday, my day off; to my surprise, Stefan had sent me a picture of him and a random pupper in a customer’s car at work. It was a blue heeler and was sitting there looking at him like “what are you doing?” I thought it was pretty cute. He then says, “we need a dog exactly like this”. We had already added heelers / Australian cattle dogs on our list of breeds we like. So we both started looking online of dogs that need rehomed, lost and found, shelters, puppies, everything. He finds a few local people looking to rehome their heelers but they either were already taken or never responded. We have a local shelter here in Spokane called SCRAPS. I’ve always known of this shelter, but i had never been there.
Looking at the SCRAPS website was part of the best decision I’ve probably ever made. There was one blue heeler listed. As i mentioned, i had never been to this shelter – or any shelter – so i was not sure how the adoption process worked. Obviously i knew we had to meet the dog before taking him home. I looked on Facebook, and oddly enough, i saw that they were doing an open adoption event Friday and Saturday, no appointments needed.
So i tell Stefan, there’s one blue heeler at SCRAPS. I’m going to go meet him. He says okay sounds great. I show up, i find his kennel pretty quickly, but he’s already barking. So i walked around the dog kennels for probably 15-20 minutes before he finally calmed down enough, and for someone to come help me get him out after asking as they were so busy.
After a nice gentleman came out to help me take him outside, his demeanor completely changed.
The man told me that someone had found him left outside (this January, when it was probably 10 degrees outside and we still had snow), tied to a pole. I looked up the address and it’s a busy street lined with businesses. It still saddens me that people still do this to animals. He was in shelter for a little over 2 months at this point.
It took him a few minutes to warm up to me, but i could tell he needed some attention.
Stefan calls me while I’m still in the outside dog run and says he’s closing early so we can meet up at the house really quick to make a decision then come back before they close. Well it was about 3:45 and they close at 5. So i was a bit nervous. But we went back not even 15 minutes later, we were already doing paperwork for our newly adopted rescue dog.
The name he had at the shelter was not our favorite, and he wasn’t responding to it, so we now had to think of a name; as pet owners do.
We walk out to my car, open the door, and he jumps right in. Amazing.
As Stefan always drives, we pull out and he pulls one of his old sayings out and says to the dog, “hold on there, cowboy!” The look we gave each other… priceless. It was perfect!
So without further ado, meet Cowboy. 🤠🐾
The shelter didn’t have an age estimate for us, but he is definitely full-grown and more chill than a puppy. He did have a few mild-moderate health concerns while in the shelter, but they have decreased or subsided entirely. I have a vet appointment for him this upcoming Wednesday, so hopefully she can give us an estimate and fingers crossed for all good news.
He has gotten the best sleep since we’d had him, he’s been snoring every night.
He was already house trained, which has been wonderful, and whoever had him before did train him enough that he is usually good at listening to our commands. Him being a rescue, i was not sure how long it would take for him to adjust, but he is doing very well so far. He is a little nervous when we have to leave him at home for the day when we go to work, but he is very very excited when we come home. He LOVES car rides, the couches, going for walks, squeaky toys, bacon, pulling all his toys out of his toy box, and butt scratchies.
He let me give him his first bath and brushing yesterday as well. He was a little scared at first but did great.
So far, he is the best boy and i can’t wait to take him on so many adventures. As a dog mom, I will admit I’m a bit obsessed but i do want to continue to spread awareness on shelters and how many animals still need homes. If i could take all of the puppers there, i totally would. SCRAPS accepts donations in many forms; if you’d like to donate, i will have a link below to donate any amount to their work in providing a safe place for these animals
https://www.spokanecounty.org/4615/SCRAPS—Regional-Animal-Protection
If anyone is local to the Cda/Spokane area or willing to drive, they are doing another open adoption event 3/31-4/1. I know at least 9 adoptions were made on the one day i went and found Cowboy, so these events are definitely helping.
If you a dog lover, i made Cowboy an instagram page (@rescuedcowboy) to obviously show his new fun life, but with the same mission: #adoptdontshop.
anyone has any other shelters to spread awareness for, please share your links in the comments ❤️
Another company i love (not affiliated with, but do support) is Grounds & Hounds. They are a rescue dog forward coffee company who also donates to shelters, etc. website: https://groundsandhoundscoffee.com or @groundsandhounds on (i believe) all social platforms.
If anyone has any heeler / cattle dog tips and tricjs, please send them my way!
Have a great week and stay tuned for his first vet visit + some super cute Easter pictures.
❤️❤️
KayleeAnnPhoto 
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