Good Doggie! photo credit: www.tailwags.com


We want to adopt a dog, and my SO and I went to a few animal shelters over the past two weekends. There were tons of great dogs - lots of husky mixes, lab mixes, Dalmations, cocker spaniels, St. Bernards, coon hounds, etc. All bright-eyed and sweet and craving a good home. If you're considering adding a pet to your family, please go to your local animal shelter. A pet can add so much to your life.

We've narrowed our choices down to three dogs from the Washington, D.C. Animal Welfare League, which is a great organization. It's a no-kill shelter, and they search other shelters for dogs to adopt as well. Right now, a good number of the animals were rescued from shelters and abandoned homes ravaged by the recent hurricanes in North Carolina.

Our choices, in no particular order:

1) A 7-year-old golden retriever mix (but mostly golden) with tons of energy and affectionate. However, he doesn't like some other dogs.
2) A 5-year-old happy yellow lab mix (again, mostly lab) with a somewhat extreme penchant for chasing after balls. If you let him, he'll always have two tennis balls in his mouth; I suppose they're a security blanket of sorts.
3) A 1-year-old black lab who is the most affectionate and loves to run. I'm told he's an alpha dog, but he listened to me when I called him and told him to sit.

Running update: Thanks so much for all of your supportive comments on my running. They really made my day! Good to hear that I'm not alone in my desire to improve, and that it's do-able. I ran 9 miles last night on a treadmill. Not my first choice on running venues, but I don't like running by myself outside at night - that's when a dog would come in handy. It took me 83 minutes, and boy, was I glad to get off that machine.