The color on this picture is a little off...but you get the point.

Once a week we have pets on Daybreak.  I love animals.  And it is tough to see all these nice dogs (mostly) and cats come through.  They all need good homes and unfortunately there aren't enough good homes to go around.  Anyway...The plan me and my girlfriend had was to buy a house THEN get a dog.  But one special mutt changed those plans. 

He was skinny, real skinny.  But he looked happy as he walked right over, put his head on my lap and his paw on my knee.  It probably helped that he kind of reminded me of my first dog growing up.  He had no name but he had deep eyes that looked loving and sad at the same time. 

We would have already had a dog if we already had a house.  But we had neither, so I sent a picture of him to my girlfriend.  We visited him at the humane society, and I could tell that my girlfriend was trying to ignore him.  She loves animals too, but I know she wanted to stick to the plan, and she didn't want to fall in love with a dog.  But she is a softy, and she said we could get him. 

His name is Gordo.  He adopted us in early spring when he was only 40lbs.  It took about three months for him to get up to 70lbs.  Only now is he at a healthy weight, he was THAT skinny.  He is the best dog ever (I know, everyone says that).  We can hike with him off the leash.  He sits, lays down and shakes.  He doesn't do very well with "stay" but he is still young, about 1 1/2 years, and he still has a lot of puppy in him.  He totally ignores the cats, which is good and overall listens really well.  He talks a lot.  He doesn't bark a lot, just talks.  Roo Rooroooo type talking.

I should also mention the tough stuff.  He chews everything outside.  When we are home he is inside and doesn't really destroy anything, but put anything he can pick up outside and it is destroyed.  He used to jump on people all the time, but he has gotten much better.  He still jumps but will turn his body mid-air so he doesn't jump on you.  He wants to be a lap dog, so he always wants to be on top of you.  Overall he listens really well when we are at home, and elsewhere when he is on the leash.  If you have him off the leash when there are a lot of people around he doesn't listen as well, but he stays close when we hike.

Even when he misbehaves I couldn't be happier that he wanted to join our family.  I am not sure if the cats agree, but even they are warming up to him.