Who Rescued Who?

When I graduated high school, we had 3 dogs and 4 cats. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take any of them with me. In those 4 short years away from my hometown, my parents divorced and my father made it a point in the settlement that he keep the pets. Once the divorce was finalized, he told my mother that she had a short amount of time to find another home for all of our pets or he would put them all down. This is considered typical narcissistic behavior by psychologists and his poor behavior is why they needed to divorce in the first place. She and I were both horrified, to say the least. I was working part time and lived a few hours away in an apartment that did not allow pets. My mom had to move in with my grandmother because she did not have enough money to pay for her own rent. It was a dire situation. I looked like a bit of a lunatic at work begging my coworkers to take one of my childhood pets. One person came through and gave one of my cats a new home. My grandmother took in another cat which was a huge help and also great for mom to see one of her pets daily. My hairdresser took another cat. The 4th cat died of feline immunodeficiency virus before he could be rehomed. One of the dogs passed away of old age and one of my aunts took in the final two dogs. All in all, my father crushed my soul and gave me very little faith in humanity, but others truly came to the rescue.

That was 2009. Now it’s 2022 and I have a career that allows me to provide for my mom. She moved in with my boyfriend and me in 2016. He and I are now married. We had even adopted a cat. We have been through a lot of stressful situations since 2009, too many to bother retelling at this point. The pandemic did not help, but we kept our heads down and got to what I would consider the most peaceful place in our lives any of us had ever known this year. With all of that being said, I finally felt like we could provide a nurturing environment for a dog. I spent about a year on Petfinder, closely looking for a good match for our small family. Then, I saw him, the cutest little Carkie (part Cairn, part Yorkie) I had ever seen. There was a 4 page application that I applied for immediately and then his picture disappeared on Petfinder. I accepted that he had already found a good home and tried to move on. Three days had passed and my mom decided to reach out to the rescue team just to double check. She got a response back immediately with the owner of the rescue team apologizing for the late response and asking when would be a good time to meet.

We stopped by the next day and there was an instant connection. We learned that he too had experienced a difficult start in life. Some people saw him dropped off on the side of the road. While the car drove away, the people were able to pick him up and eventually he was taken in by the rescue team. Other than that, we know nothing about his past, but that’s all we really needed to know. He was one of us. He was immediately affectionate, although a bit timid, and understandably so. After about an hour of visiting this adorable sweetheart, we asked what next steps would be to finalize the adoption. She gave us a list of things he would need. We immediately went to a local pet store and picked up everything. Our new family member was delivered the next day. Serendipitously, this all occurred around the time of National Dog Day and he didn’t have an official birthday. His chart said that he was roughly (ruffly) two. So now we will be celebrating his birthday every year on National Dog Day.

It’s only been a few weeks, but he has already made such a huge impact on our mental well-being. We love our cat, but he chose my husband as his person a long time ago. That left little room for snugs or cuddles for me from the cat. Our new pup provides us with all of the snugs, cuddles, and kisses a family could ever want. We’ve absolutely spoiled him with toys and comfy places to stretch and snooze. We throw the ball around for him in the backyard daily too. Most of our neighbors also have dogs and he has tons of fun chatting with them through the fence boards. We are still working on commands like sit and stay, but he seems to know his new name pretty well. His general self-esteem has perked up too. He barks a little bit more than he did during the first few days, but we see that as a positive sign of him being comfortable in his new environment.

All in all, we are a family that thinks and over-thinks before making any kind of decision, but I feel that this adoption was a plan that had been in the works since 2009. I have steadily been working toward creating a new environment, establishing roots in a safe place with good people. Adding this sweet pup to the mix has absolutely been the cherry on top of creating a new life that has been in the works for over a decade. I am grateful for all the good that comes my way despite all the bad. I am also grateful to finally be in a place where I can start to provide for others. I’m sure many of you feel the same way, especially after these past couple of years. Slowly getting out of survival mode and starting to truly thrive is a beautiful thing. I have no doubt that there will be more ups and downs to come, but I look forward to working through all of that with our new canine friend by our side.

In loving memory of Gentleman, Missy, Tippy, Punkin, Wally, Romeo, and Mugsy.