BEDIA #8 Getting a Dog

I've mentioned our dog a couple times. Ojo is his name. Well, now it is anyway...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

After I made a trip to Denver from Seoul for my sister's wedding, Chelsea told me she wanted to get a dog. We had discussed getting a dog in the future, when we had the space for it, because to be honest, Chelsea wants a horse-sized dog. 

I thought about it, and, as we had decided to stay in Korea until November, I figured it was worth the effort to get a dog, get it adjusted to our apartment at the Village, then uproot it and take it to the States.

Chelsea and I started browsing an animal rescue website. It included profiles and updates and listed whether or not the dog was up to date on its vaccinations. We both rather liked a little dog named Bubbles (we both hated the name), but he ended up going home with a couple that sent an email inquiry before we did. 

That was a bummer, but we kept looking. We saw a little dog that looked like he had a cute personality. His name was Eun Chong, and he lived in DaeJeon. He had had his bark removed, but had a rep for trying to bark anyway. We felt it was cruel to remove a bark and something we would never do, but we figured it would be a bonus for us. 

Chelsea sent a message to the animal shelter and we planned a trip to DaeJeon, which is a story of its own. We stayed the weekend, but never heard from the animal shelter. 

Chelsea found a third little dog named Harry. I wasn't sold from his profile, but Chelsea wanted to arrange a meeting. I was ok with that, so off we went to Seoul.

It was obvious from the first few minutes that Harry wasn't a regular dog. He was more interested in wandering than hanging out with us. It was also obvious that everybody liked this little dog. Schoolkids stopped to pet him. Adults did the same. He was patient with them, but would wander off when he was done with the attention. 

After our visit, we went back to the Village and discussed what we thought. We both liked the dog, but thought the name had to go. We decided to adopt him and changed his name to Ojo, though we couldn't bear to break the news to his foster-lady.

After taking him home, we started noticing some quirks. He walks into table legs. He always turns around counter-clockwise. It took him four months to bark, and then it was at the thunder, which is his Mortal Enemy. He didn't know how to do stairs, and still struggles with them. And he has many cat-like tendencies.

Getting him back to the States was an adventure, but that's another story.

Watching Chelsea sleep. He actually almost tried to join her on the loveseat.