Louie

July 20, 2015 | Happy Tails, 

In 2006, I took my girlfriend at the time to the Humane Society of Indianapolis so we could strengthen our relationship and have a new member of our family. As we arrived, we made the common mistake of going and looking at puppies. We wandered around, and most of the puppies were too big for our apartment. We found one dog and asked to take him out into the yard and get to know him. Well as soon as we got out the door, he bolted to the fence row and started sniffing, happy as can be. After about 10 minutes of watching him sniff his way around the yard and completely ignore us, my girlfriend and I made the decision that we wanted a more sociable companion. 

We were getting ready to leave, when the associate mentioned that maybe adopting an older dog would be something to consider. We found this dog Louie, who was in a central pen with a yellow card on his gate. We took Louie out to the “doggie test drive lot,” which is what I call the little fenced in section to the side of the building. Louie immediately bolted to the fence line and did the same thing as the previous dog we looked at. I thought to myself, “here we go again,” so I sat down in a green plastic lawn chair while my girlfriend tried to wrangle Louie in for some attention. Before she could get to him, he turned around, looked right at me, and proceeded to jump up in this small green lawn chair. Now I am not a small guy, and Louie isn’t a very small dog. He forced me out of the way, sat down right next to me, and used his nose to put my hand on his head. I knew right then he was the dog for me, the perfect affection hound. We adopted Louie that day, and took him home with us to our apartment. He had some growing pains, like learning not to potty in the apartment. But he followed us around and always begged for attention, even when he got done with an hour of “love love” time. He loves plush toys, and he grooms them like a cat.
 
Louie has been with me every day since he was adopted, almost 9 years ago. The girlfriend has gone and he lives with my family on our farm in western Indiana. He is 13 now, and he moves a little slower now than he used to, but his little nub of a tail wags as fast as it did the day I brought him home. He truly is my best friend; he asks so little and gives so much. I have made a lot of decisions in my life, some good, some bad; but the best decision I ever made was adopting this guy and bringing him into my family.

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