Our Journey to Adopt a Dog and Our Ruff First Days

Growing up, my family always had a dog. Everytime I would picture myself all grown up the one thing that never changed was having a dog (or dogs). Same for my hubby. But now that we were adults, life kept getting in our way. First it was college, then it was living in small apartments, and finally income. We eventually realized there would never be an absolutely perfect time to adopt a dog.

Here’s how our journey started:

Hubby came home from work one day and he said, “Honey, I want to adopt a dog.”

I said, “I know, me too, but we can’t yet.”

“ Yes we can,” he said. “I already talked to our landlord. Plus, with you working from home it doesn’t matter that we don’t have a yard because there’s plenty of nice areas to take a dog on walks.”

I paused for a moment, “Are we really doing this?”

“Yes,” he said confidently.

I didn’t even try to contain my excitement, I squealed and started jumping up and down!

We’re going to adopt a dog, this is what we knew:

We wanted to adopt a dog who likes to cuddle. We’re both big on physical affection, so this was pretty important to us. The doggo must enjoy going on walks since we didn’t have a yard. We also wanted one that was fully grown.

Although a puppy is cute, it would go through teething and need to be potty trained. With our place being mostly carpeted and not owning it ourselves, the thought of having a puppy was too much.

Other than that, we had no preferences. Oh, we also had to stay under the weight limit of 25 pounds for our lease.

With those guidelines in mind, we started researching and taking quizzes to help us figure out what type of dog would be a good fit us. The quizzes were really helpful because they got us to think about different traits in dogs, like amount of shedding or barking, instead of just their breed. There was a lot we hadn’t thought of before, like how much time we could devote to training, because we’d never had to think about it.

These different quizzes all gave us the same answer: Boston Terrier.

Boston Terrier?

Neither of us had ever thought of Boston Terrier before. I mean, in terms of dogs we pondered being fun or a good fit pre-research, Boston Terrier never came up.

We weren’t super sold on the idea of a Boston Terrier…at first. I was leary of them having breathing problems due to their snub noses, while Hubby had only had negative experiences with terriers. But the more we learned about them, the more perfect a Boston Terrier sounded for us.

They can be active playmates or little snuggle buddies. They’re easily trainable, eager to please, and their friendly nature means they’ll be your best buddy before you know it. Plus they look their wearing little tuxedos, which is too cute. We’d been converted.

What’s the next step to adopt
a dog?

It was time to figure out where we should go to get our new furry friend. On a whim while driving home one day, we checked our local PetSmart. Wouldn’t you know it, they had just finished an adoption event yesterday. They weren’t going to have another one until next month, but they did give us the name of the local rescue who supplied the dogs for the event.

Midwest Animal Rescue & Services (MARS). They’re a non-profit, foster-based rescue group located in Minnesota. You can read more about them and their mission here.

Time to search for our dog.

We went straight home and began searching through MARS for a dog to adopt. After scrolling through for just a couple of minutes, we found him. We found our perfect dog.

Just look at that face! He was a Boston Terrier mix, estimated to be around ten years old. He was on the taller size for a Boston, but he was also underweight. Being a mix gave him all of the lovable and friendly characteristics of a Boston while also extending his muzzle out to help with any breathing issues.

Here was his original MARS description:

Here is a fine gentleman who made his way to MARS. He is looking for a fresh start after his previous owner could no longer care for him. He is good with other dogs but has not been tested with cats. This good boy would love to be your new best friend! He would do best in a home with other dogs or a person home more often than not as he does like to have company.

We were really excited to adopt this dog!

It was our first time really looking to adopt a dog and we found one that fit all of our criteria. We got very lucky. Because we were aware of our good luck, we put in an adoption application right away.

We flew into rush mode and cleaned our place from top to bottom because a few coworkers of Hubby’s had said we’d likely hear back within a week. Apparently, since we’re applying for an older dog they’re able to get back to us sooner. We could have a dog in our home within a week, oh my goodness!

Hearing back.

About a week later we got our results…we’re approved! MARS said we sound like wonderful candidates for adopting this little guy. We definitely both did a happy dance after we got off the phone.

One of the things they told us was that if for whatever reason this dog wasn’t the right fit for us, MARS would help us find another dog. We were hopeful but very apprehensive. What if this didn’t work out? What if he didn’t like us?

We setup a time so we could meet him. Tomorrow at MARS, the big day.

Time to meet the dog we want
to adopt.

The next day we packed ourselves into the car, barely able to contain ourselves. The drive felt a lot longer than it actually was because we were so nervous. We were fifteen minutes early, but his foster mom beat us there.

The office assistant escorted us to one of the brightly painted dog meeting rooms near the lobby. He was such a cutie and his foster mom was the nicest person. He was a playful, well behaved, adorable little guy, but we could really see how underweight he was in person.

His foster mom told us that she’d had him for about a week. He came to her malnourished with skin problems. He had double ear infections and his tail was missing a patch of hair. There was also a small, suspicious looking lump that had been removed from his tongue. Thankfully it wasn’t cancerous.

We were a little taken aback hearing about all of his health issues. Fortunately, MARS was treating him for all of them, and he was already showing signs of improvements. But the doctors weren’t sure if the hair on his tail would ever grow back.

Getting to know him.

She brought a few of his favorite treats to show us the trick she’d taught him. He loved to play ball, but he wasn’t great at giving the ball back; it was more of a ‘come take it from me’ game for him.

In between playing ball and feeding him treats, Hubby was giving him a good going over. He touched this good boy all over to see if he had any negative reactions like nipping or growling. But he didn’t care one bit. If something really bothered him, he just changed positions so Hubby couldn’t access that area. He was so chill.

What really sold us? He was completely fine with us picking him up. We knew that we wanted a snuggle buddy, and his foster mom said that he sleeps with her son every night. Adding to that to the fact that she’d only had him for a week, we figured we had a natural born snuggler on our hands.

That was it, we knew we wanted to adopt
this dog.

That’s all we needed to know. He didn’t react negatively to getting touched by strangers. He fit the size restrictions for our lease. He’s playful and smart. He likes to snuggle. And he had the cutest little face! We loved him. We wanted him to be our dog, our good boy. He deserved a loving forever home, and we could give that to him.

His foster mom could already tell. She dashed home to grab a bag of his favorite treats, some of the kibble he’d been eating, and his medicine.

We got to spend about fifteen minutes alone together. He was only a little nervous the person he came with had left. He was a very good boy.

We get to adopt a dog, our dog!

When she returned we filled out the paperwork and we got to give our boy a new name. The office assistant told us that they change every dogs’ name once they come to MARS, and they recommend all new adopters do he same. We had thought of names a little, but nothing seriously since we thought he came with a name.

The one name that stuck out in both of our heads after meeting this little guy was Rufus. But upon seeing it spelled, it looked wrong. Sounded right when we said it, looked wrong when we wrote it. So, we made his name more unique the easiest way we knew how…we messed with the spelling. We landed on Rüffus. It’s pronounced the same way as the original spelling (roo-fuhs), but now it looks more fun, like him.

Time to go.

We signed his new name on their ‘just adopted’ chalkboard in the lobby, got our picture taken with our new little Rüffus. With leash and care package in hand we were on our way.

We felt very fortunate that Rüffus apparently loves car rides. In fact, he didn’t even bother saying goodbye to his foster mom because he was too excited to get into our car. Now that we had a dog, it was time to get everything we’d need.

Let’s go shopping with our new dog.

Luckily, our local Costco had a PetSmart hooked to it. Hubby bravely solo’d the Costco weekend crowd while I went into PetSmart with Rüffus.

When Hubby returned the only thing we still needed was a kennel. We wanted one right away so Rüffus could have a spot to hide and feel safe in his new home if he wanted.

Fortunately, PetSmart had us covered. After grabbing the right sized kennel, Rüffus got a treat from the checkout lady for being a good boy, even if he did pee in the store.

Sharing the good news, we adopted
a dog!

Before driving away, we paused for a bit of fun…bragging about our new doggo to friends and family. They were sure surprised! We hadn’t told them that we were thinking of getting a dog. They sent all kinds of congratulations messages and we got a whole heap of questions about him. We also sent many pictures.

Side note, folks are a bit less enthused after you send them 83 pictures in one week.

Let’s go home.

Once we got home we showed Rüffus around. Being a smaller townhouse, it didn’t take very long. We spread blankets over all of our soft furniture in case of any accidents, and then we found a good spot for his dog bowls in the kitchen. After that, we took out the new toys and bed that Hubby picked out. Rüffus was very excited and immediately started putting all of his toys into his bed.

While he and I played with his toys, Hubby put the kennel together. Rüffus was a little unsure of it at first because the noises made during its construction startled him. We draped a blanket over it to make it cozy and we put a bed in the kennel, too. Rüffus liked it much better after that.

He made himself at home very quickly. His favorite spot to be was the loveseat, atop a mound of blankets that we aptly named Mount Rüffus. Also, everytime he had to go potty he would whine a little bit and go stand by the door. What a gentleman. Though I admit, I quickly lost track of how many walks we took that day.

Sick dog.

Our initial excitement slowly turned to concern as Rüffus had a ‘ruff’ first couple of nights. The first night Hubby sat up with him as he had diarrhea every hour until 5:00 when he finally fell asleep.

During the day Rüffus was fine. With no signs of illness and a very playful nature, our concern lessened. But the second night I stayed up with him as he was vomiting every hour until around 6:00.

By 8:00 Hubby was able to get ahold of a vet, one of the few open on a Sunday, who advised us to bring Rüffus in to get checked out.

Vet Visit.

Sleep deprived and concerned for our new dog, we got there as quick as we could. Then we promptly waited for five hours before they could see him. During that time Rüffus slept and looked for water. When we called the vet told us to not let him eat or drink anything, so the little guy was quite thirsty.

We were escorted to an exam room when a doctor was finally available. The vet performed an examination while we told them Rüffus’ symptoms. After that, they took him back for some tests. We could hear him yowl.

When they brought him back they said they hadn’t found anything wrong with him running their standard tests. We had two options:

1. Get more expensive tests (which still might not find anything).
2. Take Rüffus home with some anti-nausea medicine and special food and to observe him for a few days.

We picked option number two.

They gave Rüffus some fluids since he was a little dehydrated and we were on our way, after paying a hefty bill. We all took naps once we got home.

All better.

After our very long first few days, Rüffus started to improve quickly. We still aren’t sure if he had some kind of bug or if he was just incredibly anxious about being in a new home. Turns out that it’s fairly common for a dog to go through an adjustment period like that. It felt very much like a ‘trial by fire’ type of introduction into dog ownership.

Don’t let our mildly ‘ruff’ start scare you away from adopting a dog; it’s the best thing we’ve ever done. And although it was stressful at the time, looking back I think those first days helped us build a more immediate bond. We made it through a tough spot, together.

So happy we got to adopt a dog!

Flash forwards, it’s now been close to two years since we adopted Rüffus. He is the perfect fit into our little family. He loves to take naps, lick feet, go on walks (read more about our walking here), learn tricks, and snuggle on the couch. He’s our goofy, snorty, separation-anxiety, smart little guy.

His skin issues healed, the hair on his tail grew back, and he’s at healthy weight. He loves us more than anything and we love him even more than that! Hubby and I have accomplished one of our dreams, to adopt a dog. We will continue to adopt for all of our future pet needs (I think Rüffus would like a sibling), and I’ll be sure to update you when that happens.

If you’ve been thinking about adopting a furry little friend of your own, I can’t promise your experience will be like ours. But I can promise your life will be different. And mine’s a lot better.

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