Dog Trial!

On Friday, Gabe and I went to the West Valley petsmart for the NMHP adoption event to meet Rex, a dog we had been thinking about adopting since just before our condo sold in December. Rex was so sweet, wasn't even scared of Gabe despite his known anxieties toward new people especially men, and in general, won our affections. We took him home for a trial adoption, after being told that he had been in a foster home with cats and would probably be OK with them.
Things went OK, overall, this last weekend. Among Rex's great qualities are:
-crate trained, sleeps quietly at night even in the other room
-rarely barks
-rarely jumps
-a good jogger
-totally cute and affectionate
-well trained, knows basic commands and follows them
-general desire to please
However, Rex has a few challenges:
-stranger and strange dog aggression
-possible cat aggression, or maybe just Chester aggression.
See, Rex and Chester just never hit it off. And I know that in a few weeks or months, that could all go away. But I have a friend whose cat was killed by hew new dog...I know it is rare, but it does happen. Chester has a few dog friends, but they are the sort of dogs who when Chester hisses and scratches, they turn tail and ignore him. Within a day or two, Chester is sniffing the newcomer at his own pace and getting comfortable. His best dog friend, Otto, is even permitted to lick him.
But Rex, well, he snapped at Chester the first time Chester tried to defend himself against his advances. The second time, I thought maybe they worked it out, he sort of came upon a hissing Chester and was suprised and ran away. But when we wanted to see exactly what was happening between them, and, holding Rex while he sniffed at Chester, well, Chester hissed and pawed and Rex got angry, not scared. I feel like this situation could turn into a terrible one where I end up with no pets rather than just one. So, Rex goes back to the shelter today. A wonderful, smart, pleasing dog who needs a little work with his anxiety (totally do-able, we had 3 guests for dinner yesterday and he was really great when we had taken the necessary precautions to keep him from feeling threatened) but I would suggest no cats.