09/28/2025
Happy 2nd Gotcha Day AND 7th Birthday to our sweet, doofy mister Oats!!
If you want to bring home a perfect Oats of your very own, adoptions are only $1 TODAY at the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter !
Two years ago my husband and I were a bit emotionally broken. We lost Domino in February, then brought Wish home to foster because we couldn't stand that hole Domi left behind. We loved Wish with all our hearts and tried so hard to keep her but the poor girl had emotional baggage of her own and our home just wasn't the right fit for her (I am happy to say she did eventually find that perfect home though!). After that, we were beginning to think we may just not have another dog. We went months without a dog.
After those months though we were both feeling that emptiness. I suggested adopting a cat but Brandon said he'd been thinking it might be time for a dog. We went to the Wilco shelter just to look at cats first. Then, of course, we had to go look at the dogs as well. We had looked through almost all the dogs in the big dog rooms and were getting ready to leave before we came across "Otis" in one of the very last kennels of the very last dog room. He looked like such a happy boy so I pulled up his info and found that he had been in a foster home where he proved friendly with people, other dogs, and even cats. We asked the staff to meet him where we spent some time with him in an outdoor yard. There was no magical connection. He barely paid attention to us, more interested in looking for the staff member that he knew. Plus it was hot and he is not a hot weather guy. But he was friendly enough so we decided to take him home for a two week trial.
He was so excited when we brought him home. Like, hu***ng your leg excited ๐คฃ But it didn't take long for him to calm down and we all started getting to know each other.
We told no one about this potential dog in our lives (I may have told my parents but nothing public). After the heartbreak of Wish not working out we didn't want to add the extra emotional stress of other people in the mix.
After the two week trial we were obviously in love but tried to think through the decision as thoroughly as possible. The decision was, of course, yes. We emailed the shelter and on September 28, 2023 we got the official paperwork that he was ours ๐
We debated names for awhile but after weeks of mashing Otis into Oats we realized that was his name now ๐ We announced his arrival in our lives to friends but I waited a month before announcing him here to the 1UP Dog Training world. I was still nervous after Wish but luckily Oatsie has been the perfect dog for us.
The cool thing about Oats is that while he's friendly with everyone he meets, it takes him time to truly bond. Over the next few months we got to see him really start understanding this was his home and we were going to keep him forever. You can see how he would be slow to accept this after 5 years of several different homes (he ended up at the shelter twice and had at least one foster home that we know of). After two years we're all fully settled in and Oats is the happiest boy and we love him so much ๐ฅฐ
Such a huge thank you to the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter for bringing Oatsie into our lives. And another huge thank you to Rebecca, Oats' wonderful foster mom. Her notes on how he was in a home were invaluable in our decision to bring him home. If you've ever debated fostering an animal, I can tell you from experience that it can make all the difference in helping learn about a shelter animal's personality and finding them the right home.
Now we're off to the park to celebrate Oaty's Big Day!!
