I have always wanted a dog.  As a child I would knock on all of my neighbours' doors and ask to
‘borrow’ their dogs for walks and to play in my backyard.  Unfortunately, because of family allergies, I was never allowed to have one of my own.  When I did finally live on my own I never felt as though I had the right home or lifestyle to adopt.

Finally, just last year in 2012, it seemed that all the stars had aligned and the timing was right.  I researched several different adoption agencies, contemplated buying a puppy from a breeder and looked all over Kijiji.  I visited with 9 dogs altogether but just didn’t feel like I had found ‘the one’.  Then one day in June, I took my two children to the SPCA of Western Quebec just to see who was waiting to be adopted.  I was already quite familiar with all of the pictures on their website but none of the dogs really stood out for me or the kids.  We decided to check them out anyway and at best walk a
few just for the fun of it.  I had no expectations.

We looked at each dog one-by-one and of course it wasn’t until the very end when we looked at the
last dog in line that we locked eyes with a little brown Chihuahua named Max.  Before I could say anything at all my 4-year-old son blurted out, “I like that guy!”.  He took the words right out of my mouth.  I would even argue that little Max was thinking the same thing about my son.  It just felt right.  We took him for a walk and it was clearly a match made in heaven.  When I watched my 14-month-old daughter give Max a dog-treat and saw how gentle he was with her I said, “This is it!  This dog belongs with us!".

We took him home the same day and my son named him Lego.  We had a very short adjustment period which was mostly about teaching my children how to behave appropriately around animals and respect their space, but it was also about teaching Lego who was first in command since he clearly though he
was! ;)

Things had gone so well that 4 months later we found ourselves contemplating adopting another dog.  I went through the same process of contacting adoption agencies and keeping my eye out for the right little mutt to join our family.  Since we had had so much luck at the SPCA I decided to go back and see who might be waiting for us this time around.  Sure enough there I found Leo, a little Pomeranian/Corgi mix as timid as can be all the way from Iqaluit.  I spent a week and a half back and forth to the SPCA visiting with and walking Leo before I finally took him home and named him Orko, after the shy but brave and magical character from the He-Man cartoon series.

This time our adjustment period was a little different as Orko was so proud of his new home that he wanted to make sure he marked his territory accordingly.  After a week of showing him that peeing outside was much more fun than peeing inside, he finally agreed.

Now, thanks to the warm and wonderful support of the volunteers at the SPCA of Western Quebec and a little bit of patience from everyone, human and canine, we are one big happy family!

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