I'm A Mommie

Meet my new little girl, Lassie. She's a Golden-Collie Retriever. This morning, I got up early and drove to a shelter in downtown Los Angeles. Normally, I won't go over the hill unless a gun is held to my head, but Lassie was worth the sacrifice.

The shelter was in a section of LA that I had never seen before. It was old, grimy and depressing, like parts of New York City. CSI New York was there, filming. The area was a crime scene waiting to happen.

I had never been in a shelter before and it was horrifying. Instead of envisioning Hell as fire and brimstone, preachers should describe Hell as being a dog shelter. Nothing can be as horrifying. I'm haunted by the faces of the desperate dogs that I couldn't save. Perhaps, Schindler's List would be a more apt comparison.

Lassie was paralyzed with fright. She wouldn't come out of her little dog house. I was asked to wait in a holding pen while they brought her to me. I was just one more penned in creature, surrounded my barking dogs. It took forever because they couldn't catch her. Once I saw her, she just wandered around the pen and tried to avoid me. Shaking violently, with her fluffy tail between her legs, she finally let me touch her. Our eyes met and I knew instantly that I had a new dog. I could feel her sweet, gentle nature and how much she needed to be loved.

Before they let me take her, I had to sign a release of liability. They said that she was a growler and might bite. That made me nervous, but I signed the paper and took her anyway. My instincts told me that if she growled, it was only because she was scared. There was nothing aggressive about her and soon, she would have no reason to be scared anymore.

She ran to my car and jumped in. As the car started moving out of the parking lot, she leaned over and licked my arm. That was my first Lassie kiss. She was grateful to be escaping the doggie concentration camp.



Lassie likes dogs and my dogs like dogs, so there was no problem with the introductions. I took her straight from the car to the backyard to give her time to adjust. It was several minutes before Tommy and Kelsey noticed her. When they did, they walked out, wagged their tails, sniffed each other and all was fine.

It wasn't long before Lassie discovered the pond. I went inside for just one minute to get her a new collar and when I came out, she was in the deep end.

It's only been a few hours, but she's a different girl now. She's walking with her tail held high and comes over to be petted. I just need to train her to sit on the couch and sleep in bed with me.