For the entire week following this trip I struggled with my conscience and my desire to adopt Dakota, trying to find a way to make it work knowing that Dakota would very likely want to chase my cat, and not in a good way. Both Kristi from the adoption center and An told me it was probably not a good idea, even if I could keep them separated. I could keep them apart, but my cat would constantly live in fear of being attacked (she's a bit fearful to begin with), and Dakota would always be taunted by the scent of a cat in the house, even if he couldn't get to her.

It took almost the whole week, but by the end of it I grudgingly came to the realization that there was realistically no way I could make it work and still keep it fair to both my cat and Dakota unless they could get along, and both Dakota's cat test results and my own experiences with him indicated that it probably wasn't going to work that way. In the interest of the well being of both my cat and Dakota, there was no other option but to retract my request to adopt Dakota.

There were tears on my face as I wrote the email to Kristi explaining why I had to retract my adoption request. It was so hard for me to make that decision, and I was devastated that I couldn't adopt Dakota. I knew with every fiber of my being that Dakota was a perfect dog for me. I loved his personality, his energy and his physical appearance too, but in the end the welfare of my cat came first. No amount of rationalization could keep me from feeling like I let Dakota down though, and that guilt is going to follow me around for a while.

I'm positive he will be upgraded to purple, then a green collar. I've already seen how he is around people and even random kids, and he's perfect. I hope that if he still hasn't been upgraded to purple by the next time I'm at Best Friends, that they will still let me spend some time with him. If I can't adopt him, I owe him at least that much.

I also wanted to thank all the people who came up to me this weekend and told me how much they liked my blog. I love that you're reading it, and I'm happy to be able to share my experiences like this. I apologize to everybody whose names I forgot or misspelled, no offense meant; I'm good with faces but bad with names.

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“I loved [Dakota’s] personality, his energy and his physical appearance too, but in the end, the welfare of my cat came first.”