Walt Rubel Commentary: Making room in my home for Godzilla

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but I decided last week to follow up on something I’ve been talking about for months - adopting a dog.

And so, I went to the Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley to pick one out. I’ve adopted cats from the shelter before, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the assault on the senses that choosing a dog turned out to be.

To the credit of shelter staff, stench wasn’t an issue. All of the dogs were clean and well cared for. But the noise created by 30-some dogs in the same enclosure all barking at the same time redefines the word “cacophony.”

There are four long and narrow buildings for the dogs. Most had an indoor and outdoor area that they shared with two or three other pups.

As I walked up to the first outdoor kennel, two or three large, aggressive dogs ran to the fence barking and snarling. I hope they all find loving homes, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. Inside one of the kennels, a lean, white dog was leaping nearly all the way to the ceiling in a futile effort to escape. I knew that my backyard would never hold him.

Eliminating dogs from contention was easy. Picking one was hard. I was waiting for that magic moment when the dog ran to the fence, locked eyes with mine and made an instant connection. That didn’t happen.

I kept coming back to the same shaggy, mid-sized dog who was sleeping the first time I passed by. I got his attention, and he came up to the fence to check me out. It wasn’t magic, but he seemed like a calm dog with a friendly disposition.

Before closing the deal, I had a chance to interact with the dog in a large, enclosed area. Seeing the handler bring him on a leash, he seemed happy to be out of the kennel. He ran up to me and, while we didn’t spend a lot of time, it was enough to confirm my decision.

On some level, visiting the shelter can feel a little bit heavy. I was always aware that some of the dogs I overlooked would eventually be euthanized. The animal shelter had to put down 2,609 animals in 2024. That’s an improvement over the previous year, when 3,400 were killed, but it’s still far too many.

Even putting that out of mind, it is a terrific challenge to confine and care for that many dogs in one place. But despite all that, the staff was cheerful and the experience was pleasant.

My dog hadn’t been neutered yet, so I wasn’t able to bring him home right away. That will give me a few days to try to explain things to my cat.

All dogs at the shelter get a name. Mine was named Winston. If I had one complaint about shelter staff, it would be that name. Winston sounds like an English bulldog, not a shaggy mutt.

I’m going to call him Godzilla.

One final note. I was saddened to learn about the death of Joe Roach on Christmas Day. Joe was a frequent guest on the community radio show I co-host, where he shared his expertise on Russia and Ukraine. He was a man of wisdom and vision who was able to access conditions of horrific tragedy without ever losing his sense of humanity or humor.


Walt Rubel can be reached at [email protected]

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