New Adventures: Puppy Love

On January 28, I decided to foster to adopt a puppy. I was feeling some old familiar emptiness that led me to make decisions that had consequences I wasn’t prepared for in the past; a cycle not worth repeating. I had been thinking about getting a puppy for months before this though. When I finally decided to follow through, I took my kiddos to meet this 1 year young pitbull named Rosie. We all agreed that we loved her. Despite my confidence in the love we had for Rosie, I reached out to my dad because he has had many a dog and would be able to give me sound advice.

“Get a smaller puppy,” he said. “You don’t know what she’s been through or how she will react to triggers.”

I made myself sleep on his advice. I woke up knowing that he had reasonable and sound advice. I definitely didn’t want to take it but I decided to listen. The next puppy I wanted to bring home was a little boy. He was said to be around 4 months old, had an all black face (with mostly black fur), and these piercing blue eyes I couldn’t get out of my head. The kids and I got really excited about that little guy (especially since he laid down on my hand immediately after I extended it to introduce myself). We made it all the way to the office and were waiting for him to be released to us when we got other than great news. We couldn’t take him because he was scheduled to be transferred to a rescue the next day. The kids and I went home with just us again.

Since I tend to be persistent once I’ve made up my mind about doing something, we went back to the animal shelter once last time. I made the kids walk with me around and around and we even said hi to Rosie before I finally made a decision. There was this beautiful brown chocolate looking girl sitting right above where “Blue Eyes” was. I did notice her before and liked her coloring but I wasn’t as excited about her. The animal service employee brought “Roses” out to meet us. She was trembling. I mean, it was pretty cold but you could tell she wasn’t really ready to meet anyone. For some reason, I decided to bring her home. Before we went to bed on the first night, she had already started to adjust.

I don’t know if she decided to warm up to me because of the car ride ear scratches, my willingness to take her in, or if it was something else. On day 3, the kids and I came home from school and Moka (the name we’ve given her) got loose in the house. She excitedly greeted me at the door and even shoved her way past when my son unknowingly forced the door open giving Moka room to escape. I. Was. Terrified! I was shaking so hard I could barely walk when we all finally got in the house (yes even Moka). It turns out she really was just excited to see us. She ran around the car twice but quickly settled so I could get her back in the house.

We’re barely coming up on 2 weeks since Moka came home with us and I’m ready to make her an official part of our family. She’s very loving and playful though shy with new people and animals. I’ll have to get her into some training classes soon. Do you have pets?