Hi, We're here about Kenny! (How we got Mulligan)

Mid July, 2011- I was working a crappy temp job @ an architectural firm and tired of coming home to an empty apartment.  Still, I didn't have a perm position and we were still researching and telling everyone, and ourselves, that we would probably wait until Septemberish or later for Dog 2.0.

I happened to have too much time on my hands and looking at dogs made me feel better, so I started stalking petfinder "just to look".  Who was I kidding?

What we wanted:  Non-shedding, short-coat, medium-sized (though I was open to anything less than 100 lbs), young but not puppy, easy to train, smart, like to play with toys, social. We wanted a dog that would play in play time and chill in sleep time and one that was easier to have in apartments (not a generally prohibited breed) Short list included small lab mixes and Wheatens. And we didn't want to pay $300 for the dog, so reasonably priced was definitely on the list.

July 20th (Wednesday)- log onto petfinder, check the CACC page (Chicago Animal Care and Control) and there's the PERFECT dog, Kenny.  He's a 35 lb lab mix, volunteers claim he's sweet, smart, chill.  I'm thrilled. I call Scott squealing, arrange to leave work early and Scott meets me at the pound. I'm instantly in love, but we can't take him home because he's sick and he won't be off his meds until Sunday.  I cry (shocker) but we go home and start buying the accouterments that dogs need and I squeal to everyone and post every 12 seconds on facebook about how excited I am.

July 24th (Sunday)-  I wake up (squealing) and make us breakfast, we jump in the car and head to CACC to be there by 12 noon when they open because we're sure someone is going to snatch Kenny.  We find him as a volunteer is bringing him in, there's a red mark on his nose.  She hands me the leash and as other volunteers are walking other dogs, we realize what it's from.   Kenny's medicine has worn off and he's a deranged lunatic, lunging and growling at every creature that walks by.  Scott and I shoot eachother a look, this isn't going to work.  My heart drops, we put him in his crate and start looking at other dogs.
Tami, a friendly volunteer walks up and says "may I introduce you to the volunteer favorite?"

They were calling him Joker, but the cage card seemed right. He seemed sweet, timid, did walk great on a leash (that's changed), and wasn't lunging or snarling at anything as we walked out into the yard. 
He didn't seem to want to catch anything, we said it was stress. He didn't seem treat motivated, that's ok, right? Alex was too food motivated. I needed to see him with other dogs.  We walked around, he didn't really look at them.  Introduced him to a tiny dog and he showed it his belly and let it climb all over his face.  Submissive? That's pretty awesome. He seemed like everything we wanted ( except the shedding. ugh) So what if it was a husky?  He wasn't a "typical" husky, we just knew it.

Scott was excited, I was too... so we looked at each other and I said "OK, we'll take him!"

What seemed like an eternity later (and after tearful goodbyes from volunteers), we walked out the front door with "Joker" and to the car.  We had to load him in because he didn't know what to do or how to jump (this has also changed).


Outside CACC

In the days that followed we must have said "no, he doesn't chew anything" at least 100 times.  "No, he isn't a typical husky" ,"No, he doesn't talk or sing", "No, he doesn't counter-surf".

We should have left his name "Joker".  The joke was on us...