This is Life with Loki

Loki Phantom Overfoot Goble

Welcome to my blog: The adventures of an almost-average American family and the big, black dog that has taken over their house.

How did this happen, you wonder? I wonder, too.

A year ago, my husband and I had a nice, quiet household. It was peaceful. Our daughter, then a second-grader, spent most of her time reading or playing with toy ponies. Our elderly dog was a beautiful, yellow lab-beagle mix who almost never misbehaved. When Frix went outside, she’d go about her business and then knock when she wanted back in. We fed her, petted her and loved her — but she didn’t require much thought or effort. Frix was perfection.

And then our golden girl became ill. Within a week, she was gone.

It took us most of the summer to reach a point where we were ready to consider bringing home a new dog. We would get another dog — we realized that fairly quickly — but we were shell-shocked. We needed time to grieve.

When we were finally ready to look for a new addition to the family, I discovered Petfinder.com.

Most of our area animal shelters post photos of their available pets there — and we’re big believers in adopting from a shelter.

Among the listings for the Richland County Animal Shelter — the same place where we’d gotten Frix — I found a photo of a large black dog they were calling Maverick. They described him as a Newfoundland-lab mix. I figured he was worth a look — but really, temperament’s what matters most in a pet, and you can’t get a feel for that over the Web.

Then I made the mistake of letting my daughter see that picture.

Within an hour, the dog was named Phantom and we were going to the shelter to see HIM.

Not necessarily to get him, at least. I explained to my child that for all we knew from a photograph, that dog was a nasty, snarling beast.

I insisted that any dog we adopted had to meet two criteria: It had to have the right temperament and… well.. it had to have soft fur. I do have my girl moments.

We met Maverick first. He was a mess, his long fur all covered in mud and tangles. But he seemed very happy to see us. Given the slightest opportunity, he’d lean against your legs and look up at you. And that fur was soft.

But then we saw these cute little puppies. We met a sweet-tempered, well-trained black lab, and another, younger, dog who seemed like a real sweetheart. There was a beagle-mix that seemed pretty nice, too. We love beagles.

But none of them leaned against us the way Maverick had. When we took the others to the exercise yard, they seemed happy to be outside. Maverick seemed happy to be with us.

And did I mention his shaggy, black fur was SOFT?

We almost left him there. There are other shelters in the area; we considered checking them before making a decision.

But I found I couldn’t bear to leave without that dog.

We said we’d take him. We named him Phantom, signed the adoption papers and walked out the door with him.

When we got to the car, we looked at the dog. We looked at the car — a PT Cruiser. Would the dog even fit? How big was this animal, anyway?

He wasn’t merely large; he was a giant. We suddenly realized he was filthy. A swarm of gnats surrounded him. And he was drooling. A lot. As Newfies do.

What had we done? How had we failed to notice these things? We’d been tricked!

By the time we reached home, the dog was no longer named Phantom.

We realized his name was Loki, like the Norse trickster god. We’d been tricked into bringing him home, after all.

We had no idea what we were in for next.

Our adventure had begun.