I have never been one to be against adopting animals. It was just never something that I thought about often. My mom and I already have two dogs, but while I'm in college, both of them are home, so I only see them every once in a while. It can be hard not being around animals if you're used to being around them every day.
A small voice in my head hinted to get a dog, but I didn't know if I would have the time for an animal, being a full-time college student and recently getting an internship. After months of thinking about it, I took the steps to contact the breeder where I had found one of my dogs, Ivy, who is a mini Australian Shepard and has been my best friend since I got her almost two years ago.
The breeder emailed me back saying that there was a female puppy available, and I had a rush of excitement until I read that she was being sold for nine hundred dollars -- which is the opposite of affordable. My hopes went down. The little voice about getting a puppy stayed in my head though, and it seemed to get a little louder whenever I saw my sorority sisters go to an airport to help unload puppies from planes.
Pictures, along with videos, were posted and still are posted everywhere on social media. You would see these dogs getting taken off the plane with a sense of fear, but then you would see photos of them being held and played with. You could see happiness in their faces. After seeing all these posts, I wondered what organization this had to do with or why dogs were being unloaded from a plane.
I learned that these puppies are rescued from kill shelters along with other dogs who are escorted by bus due to their size. The organization is called Save A Life Pet Rescue, and once rescued, each dog is put up for adoption. A photo of each dog is posted on the website, along with their breed and age.
I started to scroll through the photos and there were a handful of dogs that were mixed with Australian Shepard, so I got excited and took a few screenshots. I didn't realize that the adoption events were only held on the weekend, so when I checked back again a few days later, every dog I had taken a screenshot of was gone except for one.
She was the only Australian Shepard mix left, and I knew that she had to be the one. That next weekend, I woke up early and headed to the adoption event. There was a sign-in list which was called in order, so I knew there could be a chance she would be swept away before my name was called. As soon as the woman yelled my name out, I ran to the kiddie tub that she had been put in.
When I got to the tub, somebody had just picked her up. I was just about to walk away and the man decided to put her back and take the dog that was jumping around next to her. As soon as I saw her get put back, I picked her up. You can't easily tell if a dog is smiling, but my boyfriend and I could definitely see a smile. It seemed as if she knew she was just saved and would not be going back into a kennel of some sort. I ended up naming her "Juno" because of the movie being an all-time favorite of mine, and Juno Beach was where I grew up visiting in my hometown.
A few pairs of shoes have bite marks on them, and some shoelaces need to be replaced, but every day I am reminded of how lucky I am to have found you and saved your life. Thank you, Juno for making me finally understand why people say "adopt, don't shop."
