December 21, 2011 — The only thing worse than not getting a puppy for Christmas is getting a puppy and having to return it after one day. My brother lives in a condo complex with a woman who rescues cats. Brenda has 11 of the fattest cats you’ve ever seen in her two bedroom condo unit. A friend of hers found an abandoned, starving 4 month old black and white border collie puppy. This woman’s husband wouldn’t let her keep the puppy so she brought it to Brenda. She nursed it back to health, feeding it every two hours like a newborn baby and taking it several times to the vet. We wound up adopting the puppy, naming him Oreo and helping him adjust to his new home. Then, last night we got a hysterical call from Brenda. The original owner wanted the puppy back and had thought Brenda was only fostering it until she could convince her husband to accept the puppy. This woman threatened to file a formal complaint with the condo association because Brenda has too many cats, forcing her to give up her animals. There were many tears in the Valentine household, as you can imagine, but my brother recommended we not get involved in the crazy politics of his condo complex since it was turning into a “he said/she said” sort of situation regarding who owned the puppy. We gave Oreo back. I see a visit to the animal shelter in our near future. After all that drama, we found out that the original owner’s husband still hasn’t agreed to the puppy so another friend is fostering the puppy. If all that falls through, we are still potentially in the running to give Oreo a home. We just want Oreo to have a good home.

Oreo