I had wanted a dog for a while. I went to an animal shelter called Pets Unlimited, in San Francisco and walked past many kennels. All of the kennels contained big black dogs and all of the big black dogs were throwing themselves against the kennel doors and barking ferociously. I continued walking. Close to the end of my tour I stopped in front of a kennel with a quiet dog inside. He was sitting very politely and with very good posture, one ear up and one ear down. He was smiling. He was white with big brown patches, like a pinto pony. "Hello," I said. He wagged his tail. I looked at his info card. His name was Cisco. He was 9 months old. He was a Shepherd X. I started to walk on to look at the next dog, when something touched my arm. I looked back. Cisco had reached a paw through the chain link and placed it on my arm. He was still smiling, still wagging his tail. "All right," I said, "you've got me."
How did your dog choose you?
PS - Cynthia has left a comment about the needs of big black dogs. When I picked out Cisco in 1974 , I was a novice with dogs, and not aware of the bias against big black dogs. In recent years, especially after REO, our black lab, joined our family, I have learned a lot more. Five big black dogs now are part of our family (& one non-black dog, too!) Big black dogs are the least likely dogs to be adopted from a shelter - they need our help. Check out this very cool website about Big Black Dogs: http://www.blackpearldogs.com/ to learn what you can do.
