Horton Hears a WHO???

A few months ago my husband and I decided that we were ready to introduce a new family member into our home. Nothing traumatic ha happened that they felt this way, we just knew that the timing was right. I was looking into every rescue possible between Austin and Dallas looking for the right pup to come home with us. We currently have a 12 year old Pit Bull, Ruccus, who is very attached to us and has a little jealous side, so I knew which ever dog we adopted, had to be the right fit so that he would not be upset with us. 


We did try an amazing pit bull/dogo argentino mix from Love-A-Bull, for a night at our house, but right away I could tell that Ruccus was not happy. He really likes being the alpha male and she was just too big and strong for our senior. I knew that Ruccus was okay with smaller dogs because when we lived in Florida he lived with me and my family and our 2 little shih tzu rescues, so I went back to the drawing board and start hunting for the right little breed. 


After about 3 weeks, I started to question if adopting was the right thing to do with Ruccus being so old and not knowing how he would be if I brought home a puppy. But one afternoon, I jumped onto the Town Lake website and saw this little 10 month old Shih Tzu/Affenpinscher mix, with no name at the time, just staring through the fence in his photo. He looked like a little ewok in the photo. 

I didn't want to get attached to the image in case anyone had a hold on him, so I decided to call first before driving over there. Long behold, he had 2 holds on him already, which meant, I couldn't be a back up unless for some reason one of the applicants fell through. My friend urged me to go to the shelter to see him in person, but I was hesitant, I really did not want to fall in love with this little guy unless I knew there was a possibility of adopting him. I pretty much stalked Town Lake over the phone for the next 24 hours monitoring if any of the applicants with drew their application because I did fall in love with his crazy little under bite and soft demeanor. I knew when I saw him that he was going to the perfect choice for us. 


And then something strange happened 2 days later after seeing him. 


I called to check on the status of his applicants and found out that his meet and greet he had earlier did not go so well since the lady thought he was too hyper with her Jack Russell, and that the back up was me! I don't know how I got on the list, but I did! Once I heard that, I threw on some clothes and ran right over there. I couldn't bring him home that day, but I was able to get the paperwork done because he still had to get neutered. Which was a good thing, since I had nothing prepared for him, so gave me some time to go to Petsmart and get everything I needed. When I picked him up 3 days later, that was the first time I was able to actually hold him and he just looked at me with those sweet little bug eyes and wicked under bite and I was in love! It took me about 2 weeks to name, but I eventually named him Horton because he looked like a character from the Dr. Seuss movie, "Horton Hears a Who". 

He blended into our family immediately. He is so loving and so well behaved, and Ruccus loves just rolling on the floor with him and playing. I think Horton has brought back that little bit of spunk in Ruccus that was hibernating for a while. 

Thank you Town Lake for being patient with me while I was in my adoption process, but all the commotion and nerves was well worth it! He even had a little photo shoot with a local photographer here in Austin, Angela Lozano, and I cannot wait to paint his portrait through My Paw Portriat!

Thank you again, Love, Dyanna, Rafal, Ruccus, and Horton!