Happy Birthday, Arthur!

On this day (which also happens to be Inauguration Day! #cheeseheadsforBidenHarris) Arthur and his three siblings were born in Arkansas and dumped at a high-kill shelter.

Thanks to a wonderful partnership between a rescue group and the Wisconsin Humane Society, all four of them were pulled and brought to Wisconsin. They landed at the Ozaukee Campus of the Wisconsin Humane Society and all four of them had N-names. I remember seeing Arthur’s picture and his name was Neon.

For those who are new here, my previous dog, Riley, had to be put to sleep unexpectedly. He had developed a tumor on his liver that was blocking his bile duct and he had encephalopathy from that. Riley was a Cairn Terrier that was (unknowingly by me at the naive age of 18) from a puppy mill. He had a lot of issues that were mostly behavior related - severe aggression and anxiety. He spent most of his 8 years of life on Prozac for aggression and Xanax for anxiety.

B and I made it two days after Riley died before going to the humane society to pick up Arthur. We did meet two other dogs that were 1-2 years old but B really wanted a puppy. So we met Arthur and one of his littermates, a female pup who literally wanted nothing to do with us. Arthur, on the other hand, instantly was up in our faces and crawling all over us, covering us in kisses. When they say that your dog chooses you, it is 100% true.

Arthur has gone from little 3-pound “Neon” to 47-pound Arthur Bernard. He loves Dentastix, spending time with us and my dad (he’s obsessed with my dad), going for hikes and curling up next to me under the covers. He is such a lover and wants to be friends with everyone.

Moral of the story: we do not deserve dogs, adopt don’t shop.