Petfinder Blog

Yesterday, Martha Stewart had Katherine Heigl on her show. Both of them have dogs (Katherine is a big adoption advocate and her dog Piper is a rescue).

I wasn't fully paying attention, but my ears perked up when I heard Martha say her dogs always sleep in bed with her, and her dogs have never seen the inside of a crate.

I've had dogs ever since I left my parents' home, and until I adopted Archie, all my dogs slept at the foot of my bed (including my 90-lb. chocolate lab, Pudgy). I had never considered crating a dog at night.

But by the time I was ready to adopt Archie, I was married to Ed. Ed already feels I take up too much room at night, and adding a dog to the mix would have been too much for him. So it was decided that Archie would be crated at night.

Well, I wrote a Happy Tail about Archie after I brought him home from the Taunton Animal Shelter. I thought you might enjoy an update on his progress.

Archie had been a stray, and when I met him at the shelter, he was a timid little guy. Once I took him home, it didn't take him long to warm up to me. Because I work out of my home, I'm around all the time, and he follows me everywhere.

Here's a picture of Archie sitting in his office chair, which is right next to mine. He is the funniest little guy -- very clever. He's fun to play with. He's very good at tug of war. He's great at fetch, and he learned the meaning of "come" very quickly.

He also knows exactly what to do to get my attention. For example, as soon as the phone rings, Archie tries to get into the trash. I guess what I'm trying to say is, this shy little guy turned out to be quite a character. He's ALMOST perfect.

I've worked as a designer for Petfinder for about a year now. I've enjoyed reading many Happy Tails, and now I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to share my own adoption story.

After my dog Bandit died, I knew I would need to find a new dog, but I didn't rush it. I was looking for a new job at the time, and planning to move. I wanted to make sure I was organized before getting a new pet. Nevertheless, I missed having a four-legged companion. I would check out dogs on Petfinder and think, "He's cute" or, "She's the right size," but that's as far as I would go. Once I started working for Petfinder, my search escalated -- it couldn't help but do so. There were stories about homeless pets that passed my desk all the time. But I still didn't take the next step, contacting the shelter.

Then last week, as I was browsing the site, I saw Archie's picture. I knew immediately he was for me. Something in his face told me I would love him, and that he would want to live with me. I took the next step. I contacted the Taunton Animal Shelter and made an appointment to meet him.

The shelter staff told me Archie had been a stray, that he was very nervous around most people He would need a lot of TLC. The shelter workers had spent a lot of time with him -- you could see that they loved him and wanted to see him find a nice home. They said that others had come to see him but he hadn't reacted very well.