with love from rebecca: rex.

≈ Rex's first picture ≈

I figured if the husband got a post about how great he is, the dog should also get a post.

He is a great dog. He is loving and cuddly and obedient and kind and sweet and a little dumb and easily distracted and highly motivated by food and crazy and energetic and cute and obsessive and a handful and every other good thing.

≈ beach dog ≈ tired dog ≈ regal dog ≈

He came to us in such an interesting way. I have always liked origin stories. You know, Superman came from the ice planet whatever and Batman had his troubled family past. Well Rex has a good origin story too. A lot of it is speculation and observation on our part because you really can't just go up to someone and say "So you neglected this dog, right? And you just decided one day that you didn't want him so you put him in the garage to hang out while you decided what to do?" That doesn't go over very well.

But we had been living in Idaho for almost five months and been married for about five and a half months. Pretty much the whole five months I asked if we could get a dog. Finally Alex relented and started looking on craigslist and shelter sites for a dog; he was very noncommittal about it and didn't really think anything about it. One day he saw Rex on craigslist in the free section. He was a cute little guy about a year old, pit bull mix, the ad said well tempered. Alex had a feeling about him so he sent me the link and the picture. I about died at how adorable his little face was and that night we went to see him.

He was in a non-temperature controlled garage (in Idaho. In January. With snow on the ground.) with a little bowl of food, little bowl of water, and a huge bone. When we walked in he ran up to us and licked our hands and wagged his tail and let us pet him and sat in front of us...just pretty much wanted attention and love. He was definitely underweight (I could see all his ribs and spine) and he had little black sores on his paws and testicles. The guy told us he was well behaved, house trained, leash trained (not!) and just a big lover. Alex noticed a little cement kennel area outside that looked like it was his bed and bathroom and eating area all in one.

We went home that night and talked about it and said every thing that was wrong with us taking him. We came up with every single reason why we could not handle having this dog in our tiny apartment, and the list was really long. It was definitely convincing to any sane person. We went to bed that night and one of the last things we said to each other was "so what time are we going to get Rex tomorrow to bring him home?" There was no question that this little baby needed to come live with us. Even with everything against the decision (tiny apartment, big dog, house trained??, no time, school, work, our deposit, etc.) we some how both knew that he was our dog and we needed to bring him home.

Now...ten months later...I would still make the same decision. Even with Rex's abandonment issues, anxiety, neediness, depressive episodes, fear of the dark, and tantrums (oh were there tantrums!! every time we left the apartment he would freak out), I never regret taking him home. He's our baby. Our 70 pound, pit bull/rottweiler mix, hunk of pure muscle baby. And he is such a baby. And we love him so much.