October is Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month. In honor of that, I'm going to share a couple stories about my own shelter dogs — and the horrible habit I have of bringing home stray animals.
I guess you could say it all started when I was young. My parents brought home the best dog ever, Duke. This boxer had the biggest heart, and even though he had a blood disease that left him sick for a good portion of his life and ultimately took him from us, he is still the best dog our family could've been given. My parents actually surprised me with him as they picked me up from school, and they almost came home with his sister that day too. You could say that the animal-loving runs in the family.
Flash forward a few years to when it was me bringing home the animals all of the sudden. One hot summer day as my mother was leaving for work, I spotted a kitten in my neighbor's driveway. She was tiny and dirty and look terrified. I spent the next 10 hours of my life gaining enough of her trust to coax her to me and ultimately take her into my arms. Once my mother returned from work, I had to convince her that this kitten wasn't the neighbors' (because taking other people's animals is a no-no), and I also had to convince her to be on my side about keeping said kitten once dad came home. Flash forward 10 years, and the kitten that was dumped in our next door neighbor's yard is now a fat cat with a family that talks back to her.
Another time while walking into a restaurant with my family and my boyfriend at the time, one of us spotted a kitten in a bush. We ate dinner and when we came back outside the kitten was still in the bush, and it was bleeding out of its mouth. We wrangled the kitty up into a towel, and my boyfriend and I took the kitten to the Humane Society. We surrendered the kitten because he was bleeding and we didn't think that we could do anything to help him. I don't know what happened to the little guy, but I'm sure that he or she found a happy home, because it was one of the cutest dang kittens I've ever seen.
As of two weeks ago my family took in another fur ball. As my father was driving home one night he watched someone leave our newest family member in the middle of the street. Hector the dog is so ugly that he's cute (my mother will disagree with this because she thinks he's the cutest). We've done our due diligence by checking the neighborhood for lost signs, but it looks like he's part of our family now.
I think that adopting (or rescuing) animals is easily one of the best things you can do, because really they save you. You don't necessarily know the background of an animal you rescue from a shelter or one you pick up in the middle of the street. Some of these animals need a little more love and attention than others, but most of all, they all teach you something — whether it's about patience or love depends on the animal, I guess.
Go out, rescue an animal! They might just be the one to rescue you.
