If you really know me, you’d know that I’m a cat person. I love cats; they’re my favorite animal. I grew up with cats and have three friendly felines that live at my mom’s house. A majority of my closest friends also have cats. My boyfriend adopted a cat about a year ago. You’re probably thinking ‘We get it, you have a lot of cats in your life’ and it’s true, I do. And I love them all!
But on August 13, 2018… I adopted a dog. I can see it now, y’all scratching your heads like ‘What?’ I’ll say it happened very spontaneously. I woke up that Monday morning, in my new apartment, to a text from my boyfriend asking me if I wanted to look at cats and dogs. Me, my boyfriend and his roommate drove to the SPCA in Northside, which is about 20-30 minutes from Xavier.
We got there and instead of heading straight for cats (cat room on the left side of the building), we turned to the right; towards the dogs. The person at the desk said we could head right on into the kennels. If you’ve never been to the SPCA, there are two kennels full of dogs. One kennel is for the adoptable dogs while the other kennel is for strays. The dogs in the stray kennel are not for adoption but once they are checked out, vaccinated, etc., they are then moved into the adoption kennel.
The adoption kennel had a lot of cute dogs, a majority of them were pit bull mixes. While walking through the kennel, I noticed a cute fluffy dog who was sopping wet. The hose from across his kennel had a hole in it and was spraying out water. But this dog didn’t seem to mind. I also saw a Shiba Inu and a Golden Retriever mix.
We asked the woman at the front desk if we could meet with those two dogs. The first was the fluffy wet dog. His name was Palmer and he was very friendly. He was already trained and well-behaved, so he would make for a nice ‘first’ dog for someone who has never owned a dog. The Shiba/Golden mix was named Chewy. He was younger than Palmer so he was still working on his training.
After meeting with Palmer and Chewy, I sat and thought about which one I wanted to adopt. I also thought about how I wanted a cat, not a dog, yet I didn’t visit the SPCA’s cats. After thinking, I decided to go with Palmer and here’s why. I absolutely fell in love with him the moment I met him. He was a good size, already trained, fluffy (when not soaking wet), and is good with people. So I adopted him that same day.
Palmer’s lived with me for over a month now and he’s pretty spoiled. It’s a little weird having a dog around rather than a cat. A dog is a little more, expensive-wise, and is more high maintenance to take care of. Dogs are worth it though, and Palmer’s so worth it.
If you get the chance, sometimes you’ll catch us walking around campus or hanging out with friends, or in Starbucks getting a puppuccino.