Photo of the Week, Year 3, Week 49

Here is my excuse for being somewhat off the radar for the past month.  At the end of January, we adopted our 3rd dog from the local shelter – a 3 year old American Pit Bull Terrier named Finnigan (a.k.a. Goober, a.k.a. Chewbacca, a.k.a. Big Red).  We don’t know much about his history except that he was a stray in a neighboring city, with a microchip but the information attached to it was a dead end.  His severely cropped ears and intense golden gaze made him appear scary or intimidating to pretty much everyone visiting the shelter.  And so he sat there, unwanted by prospective adopters, for over 4 months.

Then my husband and I came along.  We saw a few potential dogs for us, but something about Finnigan quickly put him on our short list.  The first time I saw him I wasn’t intimidated – I felt sorry for what his previous owners had done to his ears.  We visited the shelter several times over the next few weeks, and pretty soon he was the only dog we were visiting.  As we got closer to deciding to sign the adoption papers, we brought our other two dogs to meet him.  Dakota and Tupper were skeptical but overall things looked promising, so we took the plunge and brought him to his new home.

In the past month we have learned that Finnigan is a very smart dog and learns new skills quickly.  He also LOVES to cuddle, not realizing that 65 lbs. is a bit too large for a lap.  And when he gets too hyper, a good belly scratch is his off-switch.  He may have had a rough start to life, but we’re doing our best to give him a safe and loving home for the rest of it.  Welcome to the family Finnigan!