In my second year of college while making my way out of the university’s gates I saw something run under my ’94 Nissan Pathfinder. I slammed on the breaks, put the car on park and ran out to see what it was.
The cutest little ball of white fluff and brown patches with the happiest tale to match was sitting next to one of my tires.
This little pup resembling a Jack Russel Terrier ran up to me as best as he could. He followed my every step which I thought was adorable. I quickly found that he had four other siblings who were much bigger then him. *That should have been my first warning.
I talked to the gates security guard and she explained how her and her co-workers started feeding the puppies after their mother sadly died after being hit by a truck. What makes this story worse is that this amazing mother had TWELVE PUPPIES which were one by one killed by the same traffic that took their mother. It was too late to take them to a shelter that night but I promised the security guard that I would take them to the shelter the very next day.
I arrived early next morning only to find four puppies left. It broke my heart.
As I’m typing this I can feel my giant terror shifting under my couch.
Well I took them to the shelter trying to keep the most active of the four from climbing up to the drivers seat. All of my attempts to barricade the middle of the truck were futile against his wiggly persistence *this should have been my second warning
When I got to the shelter I signed the paperwork and gave them up to their new caretakers. All except one… On the days where I feel like I can’t take his shenanigans anymore I look back on that day and wonder what the hell possessed me to take him back home.
Two years later and we’re still learning about each other. He’s a hyperactive Jack Russel mixed with bodybuilder with the attention span of a goldfish. Like the little blue alien Stitch from the Disney movie “Lilo and Stitch” the only thing that calms him down from knocking you down, drawing blood with his claws while jumping on you and using your body to do flips in the air, bolting out the front gate, barking with the voice of a T-rex, and destroying anything he can find when he’s bored is water. He doesn’t take facial or body communication cues from humans or dogs even though he was raised with two other dogs. He has gotten into a lot of trouble with other dogs because of his limitations. We’re still trying to find out if he has a diagnosable metal impediment.
MANY friends and family members have found it easy to criticize my parenting tactics which has made me feel like a failure for a very long time (especially one of my aunts and owner to two rottweiler & chow chow mixed siblings), but after each of them taking turns
doggy sitting while I’ve taken my many trips back to the states to visit my immediate family in NJ with the promise that I would come home to a well behaved son, they have all realized that it really isn’t that easy and that I have been doing everything in my power to guide him as best as I can.
Today Spot looks like this. He still tries to sneak food and still has accidents inside, but everyday gets a little easier. He makes me go though a rainbow of emotions but through it all I love him and I know he loves me too.
whatsgoingonwithalison 