Since I can remember, I have always loved dogs. I would beg
for dog calendars just so I could have 12 different dog posters to hang on my
wall. I would cut out any dog from the petco and petsmart ads and tape those on
my wall as well. Growing up we had our family dog Rudy and I loved him so much.
Since we got him when I was four and he died when I was eighteen, imagining
life without a dog was pretty hard.
I knew when Jed and I were in our undergrad at BYU it would
have been pretty unrealistic to get a dog. So I would always tell people that
Jed promised to get me a dog when we moved to Memphis. Jed never promised that
and he would always roll his eyes when I would tell people, but it became our
little joke. Though it was a joke, I would still look up dogs in the Memphis
area six months before we even moved there. I would squeal with excitement
about a dog being super cute and Jed would remind me that it would probably
already by adopted by the time we got there so I should probably stop. He was
right of course, but that didn't stop me.
Finally we moved to Mississippi. The first Saturday we were
there we were taking a break from fixing up the yard and I decided to look for
adoptable dogs in the area. Two new pup siblings popped up and I was sold. The
two puppy’s names were Oscar and Toni. Oscar was the most adorable tan puppy
with a black mask and Toni was a brindle puppy. They were about 10 weeks old and
would only grow to be about 45 pounds. I showed Jed and we were both in love. I
wanted Oscar and I assumed Jed wanted him to. Jed and I decided that we would
just go to the shelter to just "look". Nobody leaves an animal
shelter just looking at adorable puppies without a puppy in hand.
When we got there I asked if we could see Oscar. The lady at
the front desk informed us that though it was a first come first serve
adoption, and someone had come to adopt
Oscar and would be back later that day. She told us we were more than welcome
to look at the other puppy in the back though. I was simply devastated but
thought we might as well look. When we got in the kennel area, the tiny brindle
pup was sitting there begging for our attention. I thought she was cute but
went on down the row playing with the other dogs. Jed on the other hand was
quickly falling in love with Toni, whom, come to find out, he originally liked
best.
The girls at the shelter told us we could play with both
puppies and decide which one we wanted. That's when my heart started to change.
Though Oscar was adorable, he was super boring and kind of dumb. Toni on the
other hand was so playful and we could already tell she was very sharp. We had
a decision to make. As we were trying decide, the lady who wanted Oscar came
back to buy him. That made our decision easy, now time to decide if we are
actually getting a dog. As Oscar was getting adopted another family came to
look at the puppies. Three wanna be owners and two puppies, this was going to
be interesting. The third family was not interested in Toni at all and really
wanted Oscar. The lady who is in the middle of adopting Oscar says "ok
I'll take the little girl and you can have the boy, I don't care." HOLD
ON! What about us?! We just got completely cut out of this equation. I started
to panic. Luckily the family quickly denied the offer and left the shelter and
so did the lady with Oscar.
So here is Toni, Jed and I sitting on a dirty shelter floor
contemplating if we should get this ever growing adorable puppy. Jed and I
stepped outside to talk as we began to feel a lot of pressure from the shelter.
I ended up even calling my mom to ask how reasonable this would be seeing that
she did most of the dirty work when it came to our dog Rudy. She admitted to us
that it was a very time consuming task and could be very frustrating at times
but if we were willing to work at it she felt like it was worth it. So there
Jed and I stood weighing pros and cons and wondering how dumb we really were to
actually get a puppy at this point in our lives. Somehow we found ourselves
walking towards the door of the shelter, signing the adoption papers, and
walking out the door with a ten pound scarred out of her mind bundle of joy.
On the drive home we immediately started talking about how
the name Toni has got to go. Who names a girl dog Toni. So after much
brainstorming and trying to be creative, Jed came up with the name Zoey. We
both loved it!
Zoey has been an incredible addition to our family. Yes
there have been horrible times where she was almost sent back to the shelter
(just kidding, but for real) but in the end it has always been worth it.
Come to find out Oscar actually ended up getting the puppy
disease Parvo. He got it when he and Zoey were living on the streets. Luckily
we got Zoey away before any signs were shown so Zoey was fine.
