Khaleesi My Queen

My wife and I started dating in 2016. Now, we had no whirlwind romance. He just had an understanding of how we needed to be together. At the time, I was living with my mother and she was living with her parents. We were wanting a place of our own. My childhood home, which my mother still owned, stood vacant. I begged for months for her to let us have it and she finally gave in.

Now came the fun part, getting my then girlfriend, Elizabeth, to the mountains of North Carolina where I lived. She was 2 hours away in Charlotte. My mother decided it would be fine for her to move in with us while we got everything in order for my childhood home. So, Lizzie rented a u-haul truck. I drove it to her and we packed up her whole life.

We unpacked everything into our soon to be home then got settled at my moms. We both found jobs within the week and started preparing to move into our new house; getting the power turned on, the water turned on, the wifi turned on.

April of 2017, we moved into the house. Now, I hadn't lived there since I was a wee one and I'm almost thirty now. Being back in a familiar, but unfamiliar place was strange to me. Mom's last tenant had almost destroyed the place with cigarette smoke. We bought a product to spray on the walls, carpet, and ceilings that was supposed to neutralize the nicotine smell. That took a week to do and we were sleeping out in the living room at the time.

With the smell finally gone, our own art hung in the living room and bedroom, it was starting to feel like home. Well, almost. We did have two cats at the time but my wife came from a family of dog owners. She wanted a dog very badly because she left behind two in Charlotte and had always been with the companion of a furry friend. My cats just weren't enough for her.

I was on the fence about getting a dog. I did have a dog when I was a little kid but she passed away when I was 15. I wasn't sure if I was ready to take on the responsibility of dog ownership. We talked about it for several weeks. Summer had just started and I finally agreed, our home needed a dog.

We spend every weekend for the next month going to shelters, looking at every dog they had, listening to so many stories of how these dogs wound up there and how they all needed loving homes. No one clicked with me.

The last weekend in June 2017, I decided we should visit a shelter we hadn't been to yet. It was furthest from our home and we didn't plan on finding anyone there that we liked either.

We signed into the humane society shelter and went to the dog wing. My wife went one way, I went the other. Every dog was barking, wanting to be interacted with, wanting to know who these new people were. I saw some friendly looking dogs, but none that made me go 'oh my God, that one'.

I was about ready to leave when I noticed a door with a sign on it opened a crack. The sign said 'Keep closed'. So naturally, as a human being, I went into the room. It was already open, what harm could it do? There were two kennels in there, both housing one dog. One dog was black and his sign said he was 10 years old and a very good boy. Well, he started barking at me immediately. I let him smell me and he wiggled his tail. But the other dog. She wasn't barking.

She was looking up at me with these big, brown, sad, sweet eyes. I went over to her kennel and knelt down to talk to her. She instantly started circling her self in excitement, but would pause between circles to look at me. I let her do this little dance as I talked to her and she never barked at me once. I looked over this dog. She was thin. I could see her spine and count every rib. She kept looking at me with those sweet, brown eyes.

I looked at her paper. She was 2 years old and a fiest. I'd never heard of the breed but she was so cute. I don't know what it was but I felt an instant connection with this dog. I had to have her. I took her papers off her kennel (I still to this day don't know if I was allowed to do that) and went to find Elizabeth.

She was walking down the hall, looking dejected. But I was excited. I approached her with this little girl's papers and explained, I wanted this one. Elizabeth said she could see stars in my eyes. I've never felt so close with just a moment of bonding with an animal before, not even my cat.

I walked back down the hallway where a volunteer was shutting the door to where I had entered to see both dogs. I asked why the door needed to be shut and she explained both dogs in there were a little nervous. I told her I wanted to see the brown one.

She happily got a leash and got this little girl out for me and my wife to interact with. I asked all the questions I could think of. Was she spayed. Did she come chipped. What was her story. This little girl had been surrendered by a previous owner. And apparently had been returned previously for being "too energetic".

We went thought what could we do if we wanted to take this dog home. She explained we'd pay the fee and take her home then and there. We didn't even have a collar or leash. I went to the store they had on property and bought one in her size and a new leash as well. Purple. The color once reserved for royalty.

We left the shelter after paying her adoption fee with our new pet in tow. Now, this poor baby had a horrible name. Capacity. Can you believe a shelter would even name a dog that? Especially a thin, underweight dog.

Elizabeth sat in the back seat with her the whole ride home. I was so happy and excited. A dog! I had a dog! We tossed names around but eventually could only be happy with one. Khaleesi. From Game of Thrones. A khaleesi is a queen. Someone to be respected and loved. A perfect name for our new friend.

We just rolled into 2021. Khaleesi will be 6 in May. She is the perfect dog. We put weight back on her almost overnight. Apparently she hadn't been eating well at the shelter but she eats wonderfully for us. We even have a sister for her now. A dog of the same breed. I hope Khaleesi is happy. I try every day to give her a good life. And I can't thank the shelter enough for providing us with such a wonderful dog.