One Year Ago Today.

Miss Memphis Belle came to her forever home.

She's Here.


She came home with me after a series of meetings between Murphy and her, just to make sure that they were going to get along.

The first visit wasn't blogged because I didn't know if it was even going to be a possibility, but Visit #2 was, and so was Visit #3.

Then it was a wait until the animal shelter could do their checks on me, to make sure that I was going to be a good dog owner. They checked with the county to see if I had current dog tags for Murphy (I didn't...but I remedied it that day) and they checked with Murphy's vet to make sure that he was getting proper care and living in a safe house. So I called up the vet and told her that I was looking to adopt another dog and the pound wanted a reference from her regarding Murphy. She replied: "You mean the one that ate rat poison in your house a month ago?"

Yeah. That one.

But she must have given me a decent reference nonetheless, because I was approved to pick Belle up right after Thanksgiving. Animal Control took her to the vet for spaying and a check-up and I was supposed to pick her up there. I admit that I had my reservations when I went to pick her up and the vet gave me the rundown on some new-found medical problems and a bill to correct them that ran over a thousand dollars, assuming that I wanted to keep her. (The pound was willing to take her back if I changed my mind.) That was a lot of money to spend on a "free" dog that hadn't even seen my house yet, but I couldn't send her back, especially knowing that it was highly unlikely that anyone else would adopt her and pay for that treatment. So I sucked it up and handed over my credit card, and a year later I can report that she turned out to be well worth it.

Murphy seems to think so, too.

So happy homecoming anniversary, Belle. And here's to many more years together.