Meet Leela. She’s a two-year-old terrier mix rescue that we adopted from the Humane Society of El Paso yesterday (we’re in Texas until tomorrow).

We think Leela will be the perfect apartment dog. She’s sweet, gentle, and friendly. She doesn’t bark or require lots of exercise (a game of catch lasts for all of five minutes). Even though we don’t know any of her history since she was a rescue, it seems like she is house trained and loves playing with other dogs (my sister-in-law has a Maltese that is the same age).

Leela was very mangy-looking when we adopted her. She weighed 19.2 lbs and had dandruff, which was gross. Since yesterday, she’s been groomed, brushed, clipped, bathed (twice), and examined by Dr. Terry at Northeast Veterinary Clinic (we highly recommend Dr. Terry and NEVC). Today, her coat is glossy, dandruff-free, and she is well on her way to packing on some more pounds. However, her tail is a mess and no amount of shampooing has helped. Oh well.

Although I feel like her adoption was very spontaneous, ST and I have wanted to adopt a dog for a while now. ST grew up with a dog in the house and I simply wanted to get on the offensive with our ongoing mice situation (the previous tenants in our apartment had a large dog and supposedly never saw mice). I downloaded the Petfinder app a few months ago and have been on the lookout ever since. Unfortunately, all I found were pitbulls, rottweilers, and other dogs that cost $300 to adopt. I don’t have anything against those breeds but ST was concerned about their potential aggression towards FB. Since I wasn’t having any luck searching in NYC, ST suggested that we wait until we were in Texas to search for our new canine companion.

We found Leela at an adoption event at the El Paso Saddle Blanket store (Side note: Pretty cool souvenir store). HSEP had about fifteen dogs set up in large, comfortable crates and allowed prospective families to pet the dogs and take them out for a walk. What attracted us to Leela was her sad eyes and quiet demeanor. Within the hour, we’d fallen in love, completed the paperwork, paid the $60 adoption fee, and ST had called the airlines to arrange her transportation back to NYC.

HSEP is an awesome organization. Their volunteers were kind and obviously cared for the animals. Their adoption fee of $60 included Leela, her rabies vaccination, spaying, a bag of treats, a year’s supply of dog food (a giant bag every month!), a Saddle Blanket duffel bag, her microchip, and all sorts of “New Parent” literature and a DVD. I love getting the most bang for my buck.

If you live in the El Paso area and would like to adopt a dog, HSEP has dog adoption events every Saturday at the Saddle Blanket and PetSmart (they had puppies).