Chapter 2: Ready this time…

So hear I wait. 5 day until my puppy comes home. And for 2 reasons I am excited. Though I dare not speak of the one reason… I am funny that way. I just don’t want to get to excited… or spoil anything E has planned. It’s like I am trying to keep it a secret even from myself… Though we both know what the puppy means… it like I don’t want to jinx anything.

Just so you know. I have never really had a dog before. I know that doesn’t make much sense. You either had a dog before, or you didn’t. It’s not really possible to only ‘kind of’ have a dog.

But I did, I had a dog for a week. I loved her.. Cassie. I remember it like it was a dream. I was a teenager, on the phone with a friend. When my sister picked up the phone and told me to “get off the phone… dad wants to take us to get a dog!” I don’t even think I said goodbye to my friend as I hung up the phone a flew down the stairs to see what was going on. I should explain, my family was never really a ‘pet’ family. My sister and I were allowed to have hampsters and we had bugies too… but that was about the limit. My mom, was never a ‘animal in the house’ person. So the fact that we were being taken to go get a dog… was an event… a very strange and unexpected one. One that I never asked why or how they ever came to this decision and didn’t even have to be in the room begging!

Dad drove us to the humane society. Where we picked out a 6 month old mutt called Cassie. She was sweet. I sat on the bench with her, petting her hugging her, holding her leash as Dad filled out all the paper work. She was my dog immediately (or so I like to think). She was always around me… scratched at my door in the mornings until someone let her in. Where she would just cuddle up with me and go back to sleep. You could play tug-a-war with her and then pretend to be hurt… and she would drop the rope immediately and start licking your hand and whimpering thinking that she may have hurt you. I took her for walks… I was so proud. She would sit with me as I did my homework. Staring at the pages of my text books, looking as confused as I felt. I swear if she could have helped she would have. But I was a teenager… and if I had taken more responsibility for her, instead of leaving it up to my parents, we may have kept her. I always thought my mom as very brave for taking this chance… and as much as it hurt to let Cassie go… I understood why. Our house was just not a dog house. I never held it against my mom that Cassie has to go back. I slept with her in the basement the last night she stayed with us. Though I don’t remember who took her back… I still cherish memories and the picture I have of my mutt… I hope that she found a really good family.

Now that I think about it… we should have just tried for an older cat. Instead of a puppy. Perhaps that would have been a better idea. That might have been a better mix with my mom then a puppy… and less work for a couple of teenagers… who weren’t into ‘chores’.

So now I have read “Puppies for Dummies” cover to cover. I have a Puppies Health magazine and a magazine that focuses only our puppy’s breed. I have read as much as could find on the breed online. And I have gone shopping. Though we have yet to buy the crate and the puppy food…