So I wrote this in my Blog on Myspace tonight, I could use some good advice on how to bring the situation up to my parents:
Okay, so i’m a little frustrated right now. I feel like a 5 year old saying this but, I want a dog!
Here’s the background on everything right now:
We had decided to get a Golden Retriever December of 2003 as a Christmas/Birthday Present for me. We named him “Fred”, here’s a pic of him:
Cutest thing EVER, right? Anyway, we bought him from Steve’s Wonderful World of Pets back in Buffalo…mind you he is PUREBREAD Golden Retriever. We brought him home on Dec. 22 and I was so happy…he was my baby. But, I should have thought it through, I should have probably adopted from a shelter or something, i’ll describe why later.
Anyway, we brought Fred home and he was your typical puppy. A very smart and quick learner, he also grew very fast. But, as he grew more, he became more “sly” and would do things I believe to intentionally piss us off. Like he would do things even when he knew he’d get in trouble for them. He really didn’t understand discipline like other dogs do. When dogs are young and they do something wrong, the mother bites the scruff of the neck as a way of saying “don’t do that!” and also when they hear loud yelps (like he would bite me and I would yelp “ow!”) they usually stop what they’re doing because they take a “yelp” as a sign of pain. He started to become more destructive, and it got to the point where we couldn’t handle it anymore. Plus, it wasn’t helping that my Dad was allergic, I was in school Monday-Friday all day from like 10-3 and then i’d work 4-9. I’d also work weekends and rarely have off. I didn’t have control like I do now. So because of the bad experience with Fred, my parents are pretty much against us EVER getting a dog again. But the thing is, things are different now. When we had Fred back in Buffalo, we had him right around wintertime, and it was hard to take him out on walks, and also hard to let him out in the morning because it would be so cold or snowing.
After my sister and I did the math we realized a lot of things. We bought Fred at I believe 3 or 4 months. Here’s the thing, he was born in South Dakota, then he was transported somewhere else for his microchipping, then finally sent to Buffalo to be sold at Steve’s Pets. After Mere and I did the math, we figured out he was taken away from his mother and fellow pups too early to learn the things that a puppy learns between birth and around 2 months.
When my parents broke the news to me that we had to give Fred away, I was heartbroken. Not only were they giving away my dog, but my birthday present and all my hopes of ever owning another dog. My Dad was allergic (or so he says, my sister and I still believe it was partially an excuse…) so it wasn’t going to work out. I remember just crying all day, and crying when we had to give him away.
Recently things are very different than they were in Buffalo. Mere and Ricky are getting a dog (Wyatt) tomorrow, and my parents are weary about it, but I don’t understand why. My Dad LOVES the dogs next door “Buddy” and “Lucy”. Buddy is a Golden just like Fred was and Lucy is a black lab. I think Buddy shows my Dad that not all Goldens are bad.
A couple months ago, we found a lost dog “Snoopy” who happened to follow my parents home while they were on a walk. He was small, probably like 15-20lbs and a Chihuahua/Terrier Mix. Since he didn’t have a tag except for the vet tag and it was like 10pm, we decided to keep him overnight and care for him till the next morning when I took him to the vet to reunite him with his owners. During that night, my parents fell in love with him! They even said if Snoopy didn’t have an owner, that we could keep him! I mean come on, this is coming from my parents who are like anti-dog! What’s weird too is that at the beginning of the night, my Dad was like “Uh I think i’m starting to itch” I was like “Dad he barely has any hair!” he was a short-haired dog. It pissed me off, because he started pulling out that allergy excuse again. But as Snoopy showed them how caring, smart and well behaved he was, they fell in love with him. Anyway, we obviously found Snoopy’s owner, but it gave me hope that we would one day be able to own a dog again.
I really want that one day to be soon. The other day I was on petfinder.com and browsing for s*its and giggles through different dogs, and I found one PERFECT for our family. First off, let me say that things ARE different than they were in Buffalo. We are in a warmer climate where it is easier to care for dogs, and not as hard to take them out (since there’s not 3 ft of snow outside). I only work on the weekends with Disney, and when i’m at school during the week it’s only Mon/Wed or Tues/Thurs and it’s usually for 1/2 a day. Plus, the campus i’m attending next semester is only 20 min away from my house. Not an hour like the campus that i’m at now. I know my parents are financially able to also help care for this animal, as am I. I’ve been managing my finances lately and I believe that this is something that’s possible. When I brought up “Dasha” tonight (the dog I found), my Dad was just like “Not now” and pretty much blew me off. I felt like a 6 year old when they ask why they can’t do something, and the parent responds, “Because I said so.” I’m sorry, to me that’s not a reason. I love dogs, and i’ve grown up around them my whole life. I was the one who trained Fred, and i’m very experienced at caring for dogs. It’s frustrating, i’d also like to have a companion. Right now I have Buster my bird, but there’s only so much that he can really do.
Here’s the link to “Dasha”:
http://www.petfinder.com/pet.cgi?action=2&pet=4628558&adTarget=&Sessi…436e613618cccad0-app4&display=&preview=1&row=150&tmpl=&stat=
I don’t know how to bring it up to my parents. They don’t realize that things are different now than they were in Buffalo, and that just because we had a bad experience with a bad dog, they think that it will happen with any other dog we take in. They’ve blown off the idea numerous times and i’m sick of being blown off like a child, i’m ready and this is something that I want and i’m willing to pursue. Any ideas anyone?
Anyway, thanks for reading my rant, please leave comments if you have any suggestions.
