{"id":2241,"date":"2013-07-13T19:18:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-14T00:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/?p=2241"},"modified":"2013-07-13T19:18:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-14T00:18:35","slug":"lab-meeting-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/2013\/07\/13\/lab-meeting-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Lab meeting&#8211;Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our second unusual lab meeting took place in the Prius on our way home from <a href=\"http:\/\/hua.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hearts United for Animals (HUA)<\/a>, close to Auburn, Nebraska, a small town about 60 miles south of Omaha.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/75744794@N03\/9280680390\/\" title=\"image(9) by Evets1965, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3679\/9280680390_74f910fa60.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"image(9)\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>HUA is an animal shelter with a huge facility, and they save dogs and cats in Nebraska and from around the US. They have a very large ranch-like facility, in a beautiful rural area staffed with many dedicated workers and volunteers. My understanding is that they pride themselves on saving all animals of all ages&#8211;from puppies bred under horrific conditions at &#8220;puppy mills&#8221; to strays and older dogs that some owners can no longer care for. Very impressive!<\/p>\n<p>This was &#8220;<em>the<\/em>&#8221; visit, where my kids and I came to see a specific dog whose current name is Vi. We were looking for a dog with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.akc.org\/breeds\/labrador_retriever\/index.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Labrador<\/a> features, but since we have no particular interest in &#8220;purebreds,&#8221; we were simply searching for a medium-to-large sized dog with a nice temperament who is friendly with kids. What we found was a mixture of Labrador with a dog with a a similar temperament, from the Pointer family, called a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.akc.org\/breeds\/vizsla\/index.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Vizsla<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, Vi was a little shy with us, but within half an hour, she was chasing down balls, and getting tummy rubs. We spent about 2 hours at the HUA, and when we piled back into the Prius, it was all over but the voting. The Lab meeting committee admitted the candidate immediately&#8211;what a gorgeously cute and affectionate dog! I was delegated as chair of the training committee, having had previous experience. My kids are co-chairing the naming committee&#8211;a committee to which I was not invited to join&#8211;possibly due to my quirky sense of humor. In any case, pending a house inspection by the agency, it&#8217;s a done deal for early August.<\/p>\n<p>Just as an aside, before I put up a few choice photos, I wish that the backgrounds checks for gun owners in this country were half as thorough as the way HUA checks out families that want to adopt.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/75744794@N03\/9280691670\/\" title=\"image(20) by Evets1965, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3698\/9280691670_2db5c11acc.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"image(20)\"><\/a><br \/>\nTennis, anyone? This ball is falling apart.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/75744794@N03\/9277908483\/\" title=\"image(22) by Evets1965, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5333\/9277908483_00b31dc305.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"image(22)\"><\/a><br \/>\nVery affectionate! The dog, not me.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/75744794@N03\/9280694862\/\" title=\"image(23) by Evets1965, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7291\/9280694862_e43f79e322.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"image(23)\"><\/a><br \/>\nI know when I&#8217;ve been licked&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/75744794@N03\/9277911329\/\" title=\"image(24) by Evets1965, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7404\/9277911329_69d1d31b90.jpg\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" alt=\"image(24)\"><\/a><br \/>\nPhoto is a bit fuzzy, but that&#8217;s a winning smile!<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m even planning to take off a few days from work to help her settle in. Big excitement in the family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our second unusual lab meeting took place in the Prius on our way home from Hearts United for Animals (HUA), close to Auburn, Nebraska, a small town about 60 miles south of Omaha. HUA is an animal shelter with a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/2013\/07\/13\/lab-meeting-part-two\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[899,898,889,897,896,895],"class_list":["post-2241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hearts-united-for-animals","tag-hua","tag-lab-meeting","tag-labrador","tag-pointer","tag-vizsla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/stevecaplan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}