This is my pup, Marly. But of course you already knew that. As this blog has been getting further along, I thought I should share the story of how Marly and I came to be, which I suppose leads to how this blog came to be.
When I was four or five, my dad found a little tan dog that was the same mix as Marly (Dachshund/Chihuahua). He brought him home and I named him Cubby, after the polar bear in my favorite movie at the time, Alaska. We had Cubby for a couple years, but to make a long story short, he was lost by my babysitter. It was devastating.
After that, I always wanted another dog. I begged and begged and begged my dad all year around, especially at Christmastime. On Christmas morning six years later, I opened up a cardboard box with a set of bowls and some dog toys in it. I think I started crying. I got to finally pick out my own dog!
I was twelve years old. I searched many websites, visited several humane societies, and did a lot of research. I wanted many of the dogs I came across, but nothing was quite right with them. Not right enough to be the one.
One Sunday afternoon, after a draining day of looking at houses we couldn't afford back then, my dad decided to stop by the humane society before they closed to cheer us up. We walked down the aisles until we came to a kennel with a little tan dog and a little black dog in it. We asked to see them both in the yard. We played with the tan one first. She was cute and I had already named her Bailey. My dad pointed out her paws. They were pretty big. Too big for us. We knew she would grow to be bigger than we wanted.
Next we played with the black one. My dad sat down on a white plastic chair in the yard. He hopped right up onto his lap. This was the one. He was so sweet and licked my face with gentleness. He was who we were waiting for. I know he was waiting for us too.
We wanted him. We had already made up our mind. He was our dog. It was too late that evening to adopt him though. We had to go home without him and hope that while I was at school and my dad was at work the next day, that no one would adopt him. It was the longest day of my life.
School was finally over and when my dad got home from work, I rushed him back into the car and made him speed to the humane society. Were we too late? What if he is gone?
(look how young we both look! I was only 12 and Marly boy was 9 months old)
As soon as we got there, I hurried right into the humane society, dragging my dad along with me. I walked quickly past the dogs eager for attention, and straight to
my dog. My little black dog. And there he was waiting for me. You just knew that he had been waiting for me.
And there you have it. We've been best friends ever since.
It is amazing for me to look back on these photos and see how much we have both changed. Gosh, it seems like it was just yesterday that I got him. I'm growing up and Marly is getting grayer.
With that, I encourage you to adopt your pets! There are so many loving, hurting, and lonely pets out there who just need someone to love them back. I do not regret adopting for one second. It's like they say, who really rescued who?
