A Puppy! for a Day...

​I was about five years old when I got my first puppy. I had him for a day—well, less than a day.

​I was visiting my mother’s family with two of my older brothers in Louisiana without my parents. The three of us were staying at my aunts’ houses, couch-hopping daily. We walked down the street one afternoon until we looked through a tall chain link fence into a neighbor’s backyard and noticed a sign that said “Free Puppys”. 

​Of course, as a little kid, I wanted EVERY single pet in the world. Unfortunately for me and my brothers, my mother absolutely HATED the idea of having a pet. The fur. The pee. The poop. The smell. The mess. Everything about animals, my mother despised. So, of course, this became our chance to pull one over on her and get one, anyway.

​We picked one out, named him Trip, and took him to my aunt’s house for a bath. After his bath, my aunt decided that she didn’t want a dog in the house. So, we left him outside for the night. 

I was a kid, so a bunch of the things probably happened that I don’t remember, but I do remember waking up the next morning to my mother saying we couldn’t keep him and he wasn’t outside where I last saw him. After that night, I never saw him again and I never had a pet again.

​Until now…

​I just recently got a 10 month old Schnauzer and Terrier mix. His name is Cisco and I ACTUALLY got my mother’s permission this time. The first day with him chaotic. It was longer than I had with Trip and it kind of makes me glad that I didn’t have Trip for that long as a kid because I would NOT have been ready to take care of a puppy at that age. It’s such hard work even now with Cisco because he chews on literally EVERYTHING and makes so many messes. Fortunately for the both of us, I’m older and I can handle him now and I wouldn’t trade him for any other puppy in the world. Not even Trip.