Narrative a.k.a. story

“Don’t find them, let them find you” is one of my favorite pieces of advice, that I got from a family member, when we began to think about adopting a dog. I was surfing the web one day and I came across a post on a social networking site, from an acquaintance of mine. Abby, a coworker of my friend Kat, posted this: “Anyone interested in a 1 yr. old French Bulldog crate trained and house broken? He's not getting along with one of his fellow dog-mates in a house. His name is Rufus.” I contacted Abby immediately. I told her that we were currently looking for a place that was dog friendly and that we were looking to adopt a smaller dog. She gave me the owners name and number; and to my pleasant surprise I met the owner already.

Bobby, Rufus’s owner was quite unforgettable, with impeccable sideburns and a thick southern accent. Months prior, my friend Kat took me to the restaurant where she works and introduced me to him. When I heard his voice on the phone I immediately knew it was him. Bobby and I talked for over an hour and he told me all about Rufus. What his mannerisms were like, what he looked like, why he needed a new home, ect. After I hung up the phone I felt so happy, I really liked what I heard. So I called my boyfriend when he was on his lunch break and we decided that we wanted to set up a time to meet Rufus.

One Thursday evening, Sam and drove over to San Francisco to meet our potential dog. We were both so excited but unsure of what to expect. What if the dog was mean? What if he didn’t like us? We serendipitously found parking in Bobby’s neighborhood, which was a good sign, as parking in this city is incredibly difficult. We walked up to the door and rang the apartment’s buzzer. A half a minute later Bobby came down the stairs and greeted us with a “Hey Ya’ll” and a great big hug. As he walked us up to his apartment we could already hear several dogs barking and scratching at the door.

We had to maneuver our way into the place, as to not let any of the dogs out, opening the door just far enough so we could get in. Once we were inside, we witnessed the chaos that was life with four adult French Bulldogs and one litter of French Bulldog puppies. Absolute adorable chaos. The four adult dogs were jumping all over us, leaving behind droll and paw prints all over the legs of our pants. They stuck to our side as Bobby gave us a tour of his home. Once he let out loud and stern “HEY” the four dogs settled down and Bobby picked up a darker colored brindled dog. “This is Rufus” he said as Rufus was squirming his hardest to get down out of his grip. It was love at first sight. He put Rufus back down on the ground and he walked us into the room where he had the puppies. Bobby gave us some information about the puppies, who were only four weeks old at the time. He even let us hold one of them. We told him, however charming these little ones were, that we were here for Rufus.

Bobby escorted us into his living room, where we sat on the couch and hung out with Rufus, while he let the other dogs play on his deck outside. Rufus climbed all over us, as we discussed further why he needed to be re-homed. While talking about him, he did a peculiar thing. He was sitting on my lap and as I was petting his head he turned around and just stared at me. He did this for over a minute, just sat on my lap looking directly into my eyes. It didn’t freak me out, I felt as if he was peering into my soul to see if I was a good person. He did the same thing to Sam, once he was on Sam’s lap. After twenty minutes Rufus got comfortable and nestled on the couch in between Sam and I. We could tell right away that he was a sweet little thing and after we Bobby’s place we wanted to make him ours.  

A few weeks later we found a great dog friendly place and we moved Rufus in with us for good. He’s been a great little guy to have around and we are so happy that he found us.