If I Had a House

I may be jumping the gun a little, considering I haven't even moved into my first apartment yet, but if I had a house, this it what I would do about 2.5 seconds after I moved in.

I would adopt this dog.

He's at the Lincoln Humane Society. His name is Rufus, which is funny, 'cause my dog's name is Rufus, and if I had a house, my parents would ship my dog to me with extreme haste. (Yesterday my mom had to have her cat put to sleep, and she told me she wished she'd put Rufus to sleep too. Only there's nothing wrong with Rufus, and he's a wonderful, fairly well-behaved dog, and I love him. So I didn't appreciate that idea in the least.) Anyway, this Lincoln-based Rufus is a three year old blue-tick heeler/coonhound mix, and I've wanted to have a blue tick hound someday for some time now. I just think they're so cool. I'm not sure what I'd do about the name dilemma. Maybe my Rufus would be Roofie (since that's mostly what I call him) and this one would be Rufus. Or maybe the new Rufus would just have to get a whole new name. Something redneck, as the first blue-tick hound I knew belonged to the most redneck family I've ever met (possibly the most redneck in existance; the first time I talked to the dad on the phone, he interrupted me to yell at his son, "Hey, shut thet thang up!" and then said to me, "Sorry, ma son's just shootin' the shotgun off the front parch agin."). Maybe the new Rufus' name would be Larry, or Kudzu, or Buba.

I was on the Humane Society's website because I want to get a rat once I move out of the dorm (hey, when you can't have a dog, you take what you can get). I thought that, even though getting one "new" at a pet store would be cheaper, adopting one that needs a home would be the right thing to do. And I'm into doing the right thing by everyone or everyanimal I can. So I'm going to call and see how much these two would cost, and if they'd hold them for me for a couple of weeks, or if they get rats in often.

Their names are Chipper and Chi, and they're both female (which is what I'd like anyway). They might have to have new names, too, though. Any suggestions?