I have had my heart set on a West Highland Terrier for years. By years I mean like 5. Back in 2007, I went to the humane society just to see if I would fall in love with any puppies. I had already found one I was interested in online, and the moment I walked in I saw her in the arms of her new owner as of like five minutes. They had just signed the adoption papers, and I had to leave. I had found her online and fell in love, and even called them four times throughout the day before they opened to assure them I was coming for her. I was pretty heartbroken and was at a very fragile state in life with a lot of terrible situations coming down on me at once. It was a silent ride home as tears filled my eyes. The next week, I made sure to arrive five minutes prior to them even opening, and stalked their front door. As soon as I was let in, I went straight to the back to find this tiny little black puppy hiding in the corner. This was the dog I’d go on to adopt and name Oliver. My heart has been very saddened by his passing in July, and there is a huge void in my life. It has been the hardest thing to come home to nothing. No happy tails wagging, no random cold wet nose pokings, no random games of grunting just to get me to turn around and look… It got to the point I didn’t even want to be home. And I knew things had to change.
I drifted back to the idea of a Westie because Oliver was not the ‘terrier mix’ they claimed he was, and I had an extremely hard time when renting before since it was pretty obvious he was in fact Doberman/Greyhound/Collie/Cat. I began scouring the internet looking at different breeders. I knew I had to break the news to my dad first so I could get over the initial “WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!” speech. Surprisingly enough, that lecture came and went over a bowl of snow creme ice cream. I think he understood where I was coming from.
I was holding out til after Christmas in my mind because I knew a lot of people would give up their pets after realizing all the hard work associated with them. It’s sad, but true. The problem with me trying to wait is the fact that I can’t ever wait. Ever. I was already searching for dogs, and Alex made a clear point that I should at least try to get one in need of a home rather than from a breeder. The first person to contact me claimed to be from DC, yet when I tried to figure out a good meeting time (I drive up all the time so it was no issue), they’d have some excuse. They were pretty fishy anyway, so I did some research only to find the EXACT same images on a breeder’s website, which revealed they lied to me. I called them out on it and moved on to the next scammer with the same M.O. ughghgguhgu (and yea, I need to lay off the crime shows). BUT I JUST WANTED A DOG. The third person I encountered checked out -I even called the vet, but I don’t feel they were ready to part with their dog after telling me they needed to. I spent 7 hours in the car with my sister waiting on their arrival (“Oh, we are on the way!” not…) only to give up and head back home empty-handed and crushed yet again. After time and time and time again of being shot down, a miracle happened and I finally was able to get the dog of my dreams!
Yesterday afternoon, my sister and I found some extra time we weren’t expecting to have. She jokingly suggested we drive to Atlanta to get the puppy…. BUUUTTTTTT after thinking it over and calling to check if that’d be possible, we headed out around 3:15pm! If you’re in the area, you know it was a nasty day. After about 3.5 hours of driving through pouring rain, we finally arrived at this beautiful house. We knocked and when the door opened up, there we saw five tiny little faces and ten tiny little front paws peering over their crate at us. It was love at first sight, that’s for sure! The woman handed us a quiet little girl, and oh my goodness!!!! She nestled all tight and close to ya, and curled her tiny little paws around my fingers. And then she climbed. And climbed. And climbed- all the way up to my shoulder. I didn’t realize I had just bought a half parrot / half baby goat! She was silent the entire way home 🙂 My dad had waited up to meet her, and I’m thinking it’s safe to say he is a fan 😉
Here’s what I’ve learned about her so far: she LOVES to watch puppies on TV, she is extremely playful and cute, she enjoys cuddling up and sleeping, she plays with her food a lot (I imagine this as a cops/robbers type of play- you know, slowly walking up and then pouncing on it only to run away), she likes my shoes (uh oh…), Alex will be happy to know she can’t really wear any sweaters because her tiny little arms fall out of them haha, grass is a scary substance, she’s a snoopy little thing and can crawl under whatever she sets her mind to (I’m talking serious magical escapes here), but most of all, she’s sweet and adorable and the roommates love her. THE END.