And Then There Was ONE…

The Ramsey saga…so I placed an ad in the paper…and have gotten around 80 phone calls. You’d be amazed by the randomness of the people who call wanting a FREE toy poodle (he is a toy, according to his papers!). Young, old, every race and nationality you can imagine. A single mom with two kids, an old man dying of cancer, a guy whose girl friend would really dig him if he gave her a toy poodle…oh and the woman whose grandmother’s poodle had died the day before. There was also the girl who had a four-month old son. She desperately wanted Ramsey because she grew up with toy poodles. I assured her it would NOT be a good fit, but she insisted it WOULD work out if I would just “pick her.” Everyone has a story. From 8am-9am on the first day the ad ran, I received nine phone calls for Ramsey. I listened to the machine and made my list with smiley faces beside the messages I liked, frowns beside those I didn’t like, and a straight line face on the ones that were okay. See, I had to write down every name and number in case things got really desperate and I had to show him to nine people to get him off my hands. After I made the list I prayed that God would lead me to call the perfect person. I asked Him to provide a little old lady who would hold Ramsey and dote on him…so I called Miss M. And she is indeed, a little old lady who wanted to love on Ramsey. She shared with me that she’d been caring for her mother for several months and she’d just passed away. Miss M was looking for a little companionship. We arranged a “meeting” with Ramsey for Thursday afternoon.

Now, in our attempt to save money, we’ve been grooming him ourselves. You can only imagine! We’ve gone through three sets of clippers (guess we should’ve just bought the really nice ones to begin with!) and recently, T has “groomed” him with scissors. He’s a little rough looking to say the least. So I made an appointment to have him groomed. We get there and I realized he and Scout are two months behind on their rabies shots, so no grooming for Ramsey. I take MW to ballet from 2:30-3:15, then throw the kids in the car, run home, throw the dogs in the car, as I’m backing out, T pulls into the driveway and joins us. We get the dogs their shots. I call Miss M and tell her she’ll have to come Friday because the vaccine has to get in his system. She is NOT happy about this. (Secretly I wanted to have him groomed before she saw him, to up my chances that she’d fall for him…)

Friday morning we go back to the groomer. Ramsey is upset and she tells T to leave him in the cage and when he calms, she’ll groom him. Well…he NEVER calmed. No one who worked there could get near him without him snapping at them and bearing his teeth…so they couldn’t groom him. Oh well…

Friday around 5:30 Miss M and her grandson arrive. She holds her hand out for Ramsey to sniff her and he snaps at her. She looks at us and says, “You may not ever get rid of this dog.” After a few minutes, she decides she wants him, but will have to muzzle him until he gets used to her. She and her grandson head to Petsmart and purchase a muzzle. We muzzle Ramsey and he goes with Miss M.

MW was excited through the entire process. I’m sure the fact that she and Miss M share the same name helped a bit. She hugged Miss M and kissed her and was excited in general. As we shut Miss M’s car door, the tears came. MW decided she really didn’t want Ramsey to go with them. T and I held her on the front porch steps and she sort of cried…we reminded her that Miss M had promised we could go visit Ramsey any time we wanted to. MW has already planned to bake Ramsey a cake with chocolate and lots of dog bones on it and chocolate cupcakes for Miss M, her grandson, and me. Since then, she’s said NOTHING about Ramsey!

I figure Miss M walked away with about $500 worth! A registered toy poodle, his kennel, his cute dog food bowls, his harness, his retractable leash, his regular collar and his bark collar (with the $20) battery, and a 6-month supply of flea and heartworm treatments. Oh my…live and learn.

I’ve spoken with Miss M and her family twice. The transition seems to be going well. Ramsey was unmuzzled Friday night and spent all evening in Miss M’s lap while they watched TV together. He is now sleeping on the floor beside her side of her bed. He’s finally warming up a bit to her daughter. The jury is still out on how he’s taking to her husband. Miss M reports that Ramsey really likes the beef jerky she bought him. (Hmmm…he’d never had beef jerky!) She also tells me "he rides well" and that she's been taking him with her on her golf cart and introducing him to "everyone on the hill."

I am SO thankful that God answered our prayers. The first time I tried to call Miss M to check on things, I tried her cell and didn’t get an answer. Then I tried her home number. By the fourth ring I was convinced Ramsey had bitten off her entire hand and the whole fam was at the hospital…I just knew we’d get sued!

All of this has shown me how much I really trust in the sovereignty of God. Hmmm…after a few weeks of waiting on T to figure something out with Ramsey - as in, dropping him off on some random country road is NOT an option! (Though T doesn’t understand why not…) Really, the figuring was done…it was acting on it…and I couldn’t wait another day. Every morning thinking this is the day. Add in MW asking daily when T was going to take Ramsey to his new home…ok, I was flipping out! So I took matters into my own hands and placed that ad. Then things got really emotional as I worried over whether Ramsey would ever be kind to anyone other than me… I actually broke out in a rash on my chest. I’ve been living in t-shirts because they’re the only tops I have with a neck high enough to cover these red bumps! Even though that dog is psycho…I still have a soft spot in my heart for him. What gives? Guess we’ll be trucking out of town to have a tea party with the Ramster and Miss M in the next few weeks…

Until then, we’re all enjoying coming home to a quiet house.