Farewell Frankie

TK has been trying to talk me into getting a second dog so that Sal could have a playmate while we are off all day working hard for the kibbles & bits.
Sal can be rather needy. He wants a specific blanket on the floor next to our bed to sleep on, or if he decides he needs to sleep on top of me, I cannot make one move or he gets upset and lets out a long sigh. He needs a cup of water in the bathroom for his late night need to quench his thirst and his treats must be cut up in little pieces or he will not eat. He also can be rather jealous. When my lovely lil' Liela is visiting and I have her in my arms... Sal actually lifts his paws and cries for me to hold him.
Maybe my insistent need to kiss and hug him and tell him he is the cutest pup to ever live has made him this way? Or he just really loves me :)
Anyhow, I have been apprehensive to the 2nd pup idea. Mostly, because I do not want Sal to feel jealous or feel like I love him any less.

Hello, I am Brianna. I am obsessed with my Dog.

TK begged and pleaded, made some cute faces, did a little jig and finally talked me into attending a Pet Expo this weekend where they were conveniently holding pet adoptions.
We walked from booth to booth, but no dog seemed to fit our requirements.

Requirements- aside from being adorable
-Must be Sal's size or smaller
-Must be hypoallergenic (aka-no shedding)
-Must be playful and active

We rounded the last row, when our eyes met with this adorable white and overly fluffy poodle mix. His face was darling and we stood and stared with smiles. We got the info.
Frankie. 8 months old. Poodle/Bichon mix. 12-15lbs. cutest little nose.
It was made known that Frankie has a "slight" neurological disorder that makes him randomly turn in circles and hop on occasion. I took that as some added character!
We let the boys sniff each other out and they seemed to get along pretty well. We really liked Frankie but I was still on the fence. We walked away to discuss.

We went back and forth, with livi my little sister in the background trying to guilt trip us by exclaiming "You are saving a life!" , over and over again. Tk ultimately decided we needed to take another look at Frankie. I was not a fan of the idea. I knew once I saw him again he would be coming home with us. Fifteen minutes later, we were loading up the car with two pups in tow.



* Here is where I considered turning this into a two-part post but decided against it. If this is too much to read, you can stop here , read the rest tomorrow and turn it into a two part post yourself :)

We headed to my parent's house to show Frankie off. He played with Sal a bit, got pretty excited and started banging into all the furniture. He did not seem to have a very strong depth perception.
We brought him home and Sal was excited to play! He ran around the backyard as fast as he could so he could show Frankie what he had to offer but Frankie was less than interested. This pup seemed to have an interesting personality. He definitely liked to go in circles, as previously mentioned, but he also seemed to have trouble walking straight and his front legs often criss-crossed. Frankie seemed to go through one cycle of behaviors the rest of the night.
Sleep, Wander, Go crazy, hop around and bite everything and everyone in sight. Repeat.
His biting was a bit intense. He was going at Livi pretty good, which I am sure he knew no difference and just wanted to play, but he was biting her just a little too much that she started to get scared. We tried a number of things to calm Frankie down when he got into this stage in his cycle but nothing seemed to work other than literally, pinning him down on the ground. OF COURSE , without any harm to him.

Sal made multiple attempts to play with Frankie but ultimately, I think he actually started to scare Sal and he spent much of the night hiding behind me or in my lap. Although, Frankie was not to large, he was quite hard to handle and TK was the only who could really seem to control him.
Of course, we took into consideration that any new member to the family would need time to adjust, but I have been around many, many dogs in my life and it appeared that Frankie might have a bit more of an issue with his puppy brain than we knew. We realized that we were not going to be able to leave him alone all day with Sal (not to mention the furniture). It was such a tough choice to make but we knew we just simply did not have the time to dedicate to training a dog with special needs and we decided to return him to the shelter. It appeared that even if we could teach Frankie to settle down and get him feeling more comfortable, he still did not posses the energy or ability to really be the playmate we need for Sal. I felt terrible. Tim returned him on Sunday, but I stayed home because I did not want to ball like a baby at the shelter.
I am an avid dog lover and it just broke my heart to have to take him back, but we wanted to do what was best for Frankie. Thankfully!!! the shelter Frankie came from has a strict no kill policy and he will never be euthanized. We are crossing our fingers Frankie finds a home where he can receive all the love and special attention he needs.