Lemondrop

On a rainy afternoon in October, I was casually looking at puppies on Petfinder.com. Only hours later, my husband and I decided that we'd found the dog of our dreams.

From early on in our relationship, we'd discussed getting a dog. Once in awhile, we would stop by the local pet store and play with the puppies for sale, trying to get a sense of what we were looking for. We knew we weren't going to buy a puppy from a store; I thought we would get one straight from a breeder. We wanted a dog that was hypo-allergenic and non-shedding -- something we didn't think we'd find at a shelter.

Googling True Love
But then, on Petfinder, I stumbled upon "Google," a poodle mix that had just become available at the Humane Society. Immediately I e-mailed the page to my husband, with the subject, "Is this our dog?" His response? "I think so!"

But it wasn't as easy as that. It turns out they don't just hand you a puppy and send you off.

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We drove straight to the Humane Society when he returned from work. I had expected the place to be empty on a rainy Tuesday evening, but it seemed that Google had attracted a lot of potential dog owners. Dogs rescued from the Humane Society are not free, and they are not always cheap, especially if they are "high profile" animals like Google, a non-shedding poodle mix (the adoption fee for our guy was $250).

The process itself was nerve-wracking. Was somebody ahead of us going to take Google before we even had the opportunity to meet him? Would the Humane Society deem us worthy to rescue a pet?

Sniffing Us Out
After submitting an application for adoption, we waited ... and waited ... and waited to be called in to meet the dogs. It was excruciating, like sitting at the doctor's office anticipating the results of an important test.

We were brought into a small room, and a volunteer brought a tiny and scared puppy in to meet us. He had been found wandering the streets of Omaha a week earlier and had to be shaved because his hair was so matted. He was timid around us, but the volunteer promised that he was quite playful and very funny to watch when he was in his comfort zone.

At intervals, a volunteer poked her head into the room to let us know that there were four other parties interested in Google. My husband and I looked at each other with desperation in our eyes and simultaneously we both responded ..."We'll take him!"

Match Made in Heaven
So much for taking the cheap route -- we paid the adoption fee plus licensing fees ($15), plus the cost of a crate and bedding from the gift shop. A mere $310 later, it was off to Petco to purchase treats, food and toys. When all was said and done, it was pretty expensive to bring our "baby" home.

Despite the cost and the jangled nerves, we knew we had made the right decision. It wasn't free, but it was less expensive than buying one from a breeder and so much more rewarding. In the end, it turned out that the hardest part of the whole experience was choosing a name.

Pamela Jaye named her puppy Briscoe, after Jerry Orbach's character on "Law & Order." She estimates she's spent 75,600 minutes walking him since the adoption.