Our Chipper Chippy Chip

People say that new couples get a dog as a way to postpone the women's desire to have a baby. I guess, they think, that as a women starts getting a little baby hungry, giving her a puppy will satiate that desire for at least a few years.
HA.

Well let me make this very clear, I was in NO WAY baby hungry, but having a dog DEFINITELY ABSOLUTELY ENTIRELY EMPHATICALLY has made this little Dipo family say "no" to babies for like the next ten years.

But, before I dive into the stories of the rascal that is now ours, let me give you a little background info as to how our hearts were won:

For about a month we have been very actively looking for a dog. All of our Saturdays were filled with puppy hunting, and the evenings were spent at an occasional shelter or on Petfinder.com. We sent out at least 30 applications for dogs in the Western Washington area, just so we could meet the dog. We found a few that pulled on our heart strings, and tears were often shed... well by me, but I cried enough for the both of us, as we struggled to adopt a pup.

I'm not sure that we were necessarily SUPER ready for a dog as much as we just realized that we both REALLY wanted one within the next year or two, and that right now, as a stay-at-home, sell-my-soul-to-the-internet-job-hunting wife, without plans of thoughts of kids for at least another 3 years, we really could not pick a better time to raise a puppy.

You see both of us have dogs at our parents' houses. Morgan has a weimaraner named Duke who is just the greatest cuddliest loving dog and a pure joy to be around. My folks have a black lab named Shadow, and I am 100% convinced that he is perfect in every single way. He does not beg, he does not get into the trash, or even eat snacks off a coffee table. He stays right at your side without a leash, and is loving when you want him to be, but independent when you are busy. I assumed since I was there all through his life, and Morgan all through Duke's that naturally we would be able to follow suit and raise the perfect dog. We also believed (quite naively) that our puppy would be perfect from day one.

Ha. Ha.

Anyway, this past weekend Morgan and I went to Spokane to see Brian Regan with his family. We stopped at the Wenatchee Humane Society to look for a dog, but as was typical, the dog we seemed to fall in love with, was already adopted. So come Saturday morning, despite a plan to go to every single animal shelter within a 100 mile radius of Spokane, we were feeling defeated. We went to like five places early in the day. Every single time we got to the shelter just before it opened we waited in line like (as Morgan said) shoppers at Wal-Mart on Black Friday. With no success we basically gave up, and my puppy hunt was feeling all too similar to my job hunt. Then, as a last ditch effort, we went to Spokanimal, a seriously ghetto shelter. There in a little cage, huddled against the door was this little black and white ball of affection with the saddest brown eyes. I went up to the door and it came straight to me leaning with adoration into my touch through the cage. We fell in love right on the spot. Sure enough, however, the paperwork was gone which indicated the dog already had someone interested in it.


After being defeated many times before I was NOT going to lose again. I, honestly, began scouring the cage door to see if I could puppy-nap it, that was how desperate I had become. Morgan went and waited in the mile-long line to get information about the dog. And me, in my desperation, went on a serious hunt. The family that had pulled the paperwork were being shown to the cage. I stealthily followed them to our pup's door, holding my breath. I stood there like a vulture waiting for an opportunity to dive in and steal the pup away from them at any sign of hesitation. Sure enough, the employee told the family that he shouldn't be adopted until their cat had been introduced to the dog. They nodded and began to pull away, and BOOM that was my opportunity! I swooped in, I cried "I don't have a cat, and I want to adopt him, what do I need to do?" My heart was pounding, tears were in my eyes. He looked at the paperwork, and said that the dog had literally just come out of his holding period, was fixed yesterday, and was in fact ready and AVAILABLE to be adopted!!!! HURRAY! HUZZAH!!!!

The entire time we talked to the employee he referred to the dog as a 'he' so when we went out and played with him, we naturally thought it was a boy, and we settled on the name Chipson Dipo. Ten minutes later, at the adoption checkout counter, we registered him as Chipson, and he was even microchipped with the name. Then the lady says something like "Oh she was spayed yesterday so take these pills..." To which Morgan was like "you mean neutered." The lady looks at him, repeats herself, and I swoop up the dog to check. Sure enough, 'he' was definitely a she.

Well, for the rest of this dog's life, everybody will think Chipson is a boy. My mom suggested changing the name to Chipsanne which I believe is quite genius, but sadly, she is already registered and her little tag is engraved... So you can call her whatever you want. I was raised by a dad named Stacey and am married to a man named Morgan. Names are totally cool when they are a little bit gender confused.

We took our pup back to the Dipo's, where she met Mittens the very angry cat, and Duke the very jealous boy. She was loving, adorable, and calm on that first glorious day...