Marley

My absolute favorite thing about moving to Merced is that we were able to adopt our very own bargain bin pound puppy. This June will officially be Marley's second year anniversary... birthday... well whatever, with us. Ryan adopted him during his first month here in Merced while I was still living in Orange County. We had been looking at dogs for seriously months. We had visited about six shelters, e-mailed back and forth about dozens of dogs on petfinder, and poured over a book on dog breeds trying to figure out what dog was going to be a fit for us.

Ryan going to get Marley is one of my favorite stories ever. Ryan was living here in Merced and I was still in Orange County. I had come down to spend a weekend with Ryan, check out the house, and help unpack some things and we decided to visit the Merced pound. I was shocked by how many pitbulls were there and there was one dog who was half boxer, half pitbull that we had some interest in but we knew we couldn't have a pitbull in the rental house so we quickly nixed the idea.

Later that week I was back in Orange County. Ryan and I had continued to talk about the half pit/boxer we had seen at the pound. I thought maybe we should consider him a little more closely, so Ryan said if he had the chance he would head back to the pound. Turns out Ryan had no intention of going back to look at that dog, he was heading back alright but not for that dog, but to check out if there were any other dogs that would be a fit. Sure enough when he talked to the staff he mentioned he had some interest in a boxer. They mentioned they just had a boxer who had been returned after he had already been adopted. They brought him out and sure enough it was Marley.

Turns out Marley didn't play well with the previous owners other dog. She had returned him to the pound with a note that encouraged any potential adopters not to be deterred by the return and the note assured us Marley was a good dog he just would probably do better in a home where he was the only dog. Ryan agreed to adopt the dog. The staff mentioned there was a family there earlier that day who said they needed to go get some cash and then they would come back to adopt the dog luckily Ryan had cash on him and wasn't really willing to give up the dog he already decided was his to some family.

Ryan got Marley for the discount price of $25, less then what it costs for a bag of food for Marley. He was already fixed and tagged and all vaccinated, at that price what a steal. Ryan called me on his way home from the pound to tell me he had adopted a dog. He e-mailed pictures, we picked a name for the dog together over the phone, and finally the following weekend I came up to meet Marley.

It was love at first sight, and ever since then Marley has been sometimes impossible, totally stinky, shockingly expensive, and altogether the bestest thing ever (yes the bestest).

My absolute favorite thing to do with Marley is to run with him off leash. We got to go out this morning into some fields and run together. He is such an incredibly fast runner that the chance to see him shoot out after anything that catches his eye is amazing.

There are a lot of things about Marley we still haven't figured out. Truthfully we don't know how smart he is, we wish he played better with other people and other dogs, we wish he would learn to sleep in on the weekends, and we wish he would figure out how big he is and that he can't just go sitting and standing on us while we are in bed, but overall we are absolutely head over heels in love with our dog.