So my girlfriend and I had gone to all the shelters. We spent lots of time on this thing. We'd drive down to Chula Vista to see one dog, and we wouldn't care for it, or other people already had holds on the few we did like.

We find a white maltese mix. The tiniest, cutest dog you've ever seen. It looks so sad in it's cage, with two other dogs next to it.

You call it over and it slowly scampers over and licks your finger thru the fence.

Someone had already put a hold on it, and we were the second ones.

As we interacted with the dog and loved its personality, the woman at the shelter said that it's 50/50 on the first person coming to pick up the dog. That was a little surprising, consider the fact that if you spent the time looking at dogs and driving to the shelters, that you would find one you want to "reserve" and then just not show up.

We were so excited about this dog, we started going thru all kinds of names.

My girlfriend liked the idea of a persons name, like Steve. When I said "Doug," because we have an inside joke about that name, she said "That's Sarah Silvermans dog." That made me like it more.

I then said "Murray," which she loved. I said, "Nah...unless it's an old schnauzer, I don't think that name works."

I liked the name Cotton, because this dog looked like a big cotton ball.

The dog only weighed 6 pounds, but had all this white fur. She then said, "I don't care so much for the name, but if you like it. What about a first and last name? I kind of like the way that looks on paper work." I then replied, "How about James Cotton? That was Muddy Waters long-time harmonica player."

She agreed. And then we both agreed, how insane it was to pick a name, when we didn't even have the dog yet.

So, the day came when the first people were supposed to show up, between 10 and 11:00 a.m. I told her that I'd show up at 10:00, and if the people came for the dog, would offer them some money to let us have it. She thought that was horrible. But, it wasn't as horrible as some of the other ideas I thought about saying to them, to convince them to give us the dog (they involved a sick child that lost a similar looking dog, etc). I then decided I would just wait and see who the people were, and ask them how sure they were about the dog. But even that, my girlfriend was against.

So, I'm on the phone that morning talking to comedian Tom Dreesen, and I couldn't get down there until 11:00. I knew my girlfriend would be taking her lunch early. I didn't realize HOW early. She got there at 10:00.

I walk in and I see her talking to someone at the front desk. And, I hear another voice say something to her like, "If you sit down, we'll call your name. We know that you're here."

I'm wondering what's going on. If the first person came for the dog, she wouldn't still be here. And, she would've called me and told me that.

I glance down and realize I had never turned my cell phone on in the morning. And when I do, I see two calls from her.