While we were visiting Michigan, Corwin was also dogsitting at a friend’s house. Pam and I saw Corwin and the dogs a few times.

One of the dogs, Oliver, seemed to take to me which was unusual since he was pretty skittish with everyone else.

Corwin mentioned this to the dog’s owner who said that we could have Oliver if we wanted.

Corwin and Pam thought that this was a wonderful idea since they felt that Oliver wasn’t doing well in his current situation. They were probably right but I didn’t see this as our problem.

I’d also been enjoying a dog-free lifestyle for a few years and wanted to keep that going. It was nice to plan my day without scheduling around feeding and walking dogs. Not needing to coordinate dogsitting and/or boarding with our travel plans was also a plus.

Pam and Corwin were saying that I needed to adopt Oliver because I obviously loved him. This was a surprise to me. I can’t pet a dog without being in love with it?

Annoyingly, the decision fell to me and I wasn’t happy about it. If I refused the dog and anything happened to it, then I was the bad guy who doomed him.

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A couple of weeks later, Pam and I flew up to GR. The plan was to rent a car to drive back home with Oliver and various dog supplies (food, treats, collar, leash, travel crate for the hotels, etc.).

We picked up Oliver from his old family without any drama. The mom and dad were grateful for us adopting Oliver. A couple of their daughters came out to say goodbye. The girls looked sad but they weren’t screaming “no! no! come back Oliver!” while the parents held them back.

As we drove, we kept Oliver in the back seat and whoever wasn’t driving sat with him.

When we stopped at Petco to get more doggie supplies, Oliver immediately shat on the floor. At least it wasn’t in the car.

For the rest of the drive, we were pretty careful about getting Oliver timely breaks.

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As time passed, Oliver was able to more quickly get used to new people. We’re still working on getting him used to new dogs.

As he got less shy, he became more comfortable barking his head off.

We’re working on that.