Fuck yeah, new school year!

Woo hoo!

Thanks for the suggestion. It looks like the only breed-specific rescue around here is for golden retrievers, though.

I would imagine a good shelter would work with you. Get pressure out of your comfort zone, it isn't a good shelter.

A lot of shelters want volunteers to walk dogs and interact with them. That could give you a better idea of the personalities of different dog breeds.

In my experience volunteering at a shelter, the thing you really learn after spending time with dogs is to tell whether they're actively friendly, scared, submissive, aggressive, aggressive because they're scared, uninterested in people, etc.

I had an apple! I get a halo and wings.

Also, Anne & family good Scottish/English WASPs. French/Irish were poor labouring Catholics.

I'm so sorry for your news Scrappy.

I keep looking at the local shelter website and thinking that I want to get a dog.

I've spent the evening looking at dogs at petfinder and chatting with my friend who does dog rescue transport. I'm so ready to get another dog! But not until we get back from traveling in October.

Hubby is watching a Peter, Paul, and Mary special on PBS--yay, pledge week!--and he's getting all teary remembering his youth. I'm only four years younger than he is, but I don't have the emotional reaction to these songs. Then again, I was a naive, inattentive kid growing up in an isolated rural area. He was a military kid eyeball deep in the Viet Nam war and what it did to his family.

Huh, my serious boyfriend in college was a Navy vet who helped with the evacuation of Seoul. I got a couple of nights with him, too, of stealth memories and holding a weeping man.

edit: duh, not Seoul, that's Korea. What was the capital of South Vietnam? Oh, yeah, Saigon. Sort of sounds like Seoul.