And Buddy makes three!

Just introduced a new dog into a house with two dogs and four cats. Why do I feel like I'm sitting on a powder keg?

Buddy the Bashful

That was me Saturday afternoon. After taking a week off from fostering, followed by another week with our first foster failure of the most fortuitous kind, we picked up a little brown and tan guy named Buddy.

I'd heard the name a time or two around the shelter, but we had not met. I'd also heard that Buddy had a past from which he brought baggage. Nothing vicious, of course. Apparently he had come into this world through the home of an hoarder.

Animal hoarding is keeping "more than the typical number of companion animals" resulting in "inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter and veterinary care," according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Which begs questions like what is the "typical number of companion animals" and "minimal standards" for care. I don't have a concrete answer for either, but I think most rational folks have a fair understanding of both. Hoarders, I'm sure, never start out with an intention to become a hoarder; it just happens that way.

And the irony is that most -- if not all -- hoarders started out with and yet maintain a genuine love for their companion animals.

Cheryl Miller is Director down at the shelter, a job not unlike herding cats. While Buddy was an inmate there, Cheryl took extra time daily to get to know this little guy. Here's her story.

"He came from a hoarding situation," Cheryl said. "He is a Rottweiler-Chihuahua mix," she added, her brows curling into question marks. "Not sure how that happened, but (hoarder) has over 20 of them. She handed over five to us, all very fearful and pretty aggressive toward people.

"Buddy was the only one that even tried to come up to me," Cheryl recalled. "I could tell he wanted me to pet him, but he was scared. So we gave him about a week of us trying every day to get to know him better and for him to even trust us. He never once offered to bite.

"Then, one day, he came up to me, jumped up on me and started licking my hand! So I'm very greatful that Buddy is in foster care now and training for our Rescue Road to Forever."

To be sure, Buddy has a hurdle or two yet to clear before leaving for New York later this month. We have no doubt he will make it. This little guy has come too far to wash out now.

Hmmmm? THREE dogs. FOUR cats? And just exactly, again; WHAT is "typical"?