Over my 22 years on this earth, I’ve had 6 dogs. Sydney, Bart, Bandit, Buck, Chloe and Jackson. I have no memories of not having a dog and have always considered myself to be a dog person.  Dogs make wonderful companions who will love you unconditionally for the duration of their lives—there is no irony in the saying that a dog is man’s best friend.

When Josh and I started dating, right from the get go, I begged for a puppy. I wanted a puppy so badly, that I would drag him into pet stores on adoption day only to be dragged out crying when he (rightfully) said that at 16, 17, 18, etc., we were not ready or able to care for a dog.

When we got married and had our own apartment, I giggled with glee as I thought “There’s no way he can say no now!” We were capable of buying food, providing shelter and love, buying all the necessary “dog equipment”, as well as being able to afford vet bills.  We were going to get a dog.

In Florida, I researched several local shelters in the area and finally found a shelter that had adoption fairs right up road from where we lived. Daily I would send Josh pictures of the puppies that were up for adoption. And daily he would say “We’ll see.” Finally on June 29^th I convinced him to visit an adoption fair with me.  There we met Charlie.

Hesitantly, Josh let me take Charlie on a walk around the store and outside. He was so excited to be out of his cage and he immediately took to Josh. While our walk had melted Josh a little, he was still nervous about bringing home a puppy. The nice lady from the shelter suggested we foster Charlie for a week, after which we could decide on whether or not we would adopt him. Before Josh even really knew what we were doing, we were hauling Charlie, his crate, some toys and food to our car.

The first night with Charlie was great! He had a little trouble not jumping on the couch (mostly because I let him get on the couch), but he didn’t have any accidents and slept for most of the night.

The following day we needed to go grocery shopping, so we put Charlie in his crate and proceeded out the door. Charlie exploded with anxiety and began barking hysterically. We rushed back in to calm him down and to shut him up before the neighbors could complain. He settled down, we gave him a Kong toy full of peanut butter to distract him and we left. This should have been a warning.

That night was hell. Charlie would not stay in his bed, would not stop whining, would not stop tossing his toys around, and would not leave us alone. At 5am, we woke up to whining so Josh and I both got up to see if he needed to go out. He did, but before we could get him harnessed up he began to “Go Outside” all over the floor. When Josh yelled at him to stop, Charlie panicked and began to run around the living while continuing to “Go Outside”. The joys of puppy-parenthood.

The rest of the week went by with good days and bad days. When it was time to make our decision about whether or not we would keep him, we were so torn. We fell in love with him despite the destruction to our personal property, but was that enough? We didn’t have space for him to run around. We were gone all day at work and when we got home, we were exhausted and didn’t really feel much like playing. We needed to keep him crated so he wouldn’t destroy everything, but he hated it. While we could technically give him everything he needed, we couldn’t give him everything he deserved.

At the end of our trial period, we despondently brought Charlie back to the shelter, said our goodbyes, cried, and left. We were torn apart by having to give him up, but we knew as we drove back home that we had made the right decision.

He was adopted that very day by a family who had plenty of room for him to run around and a little boy to call his own.

After our time with Charlie, we knew that we were nowhere near ready for a puppy. But I have never been one to handle defeat well, so the next weekend we went back to the shelter to look at cats—the very opposite of the dog.

We came home with these two-Simon and Eloise- and have never been happier.

So much for being a dog person.

–Mrs. Dominico

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