When you grow up with 3 guinea pigs, a dog, cat, lizard, and a beta fish, it’s hard not having a pet. I grew up with a little zoo of pets, and I’ve wanted a cat or dog (or both!) for a long time. A while back, I wrote this post about the reasons why I was waiting to get a dog, and guess what? Some of my circumstances have changed since then.
For starters, I paid off all of my student loan debt (I was tired of the monthly payment and decided to pay it off in one big lump-sum payment). Secondly, I realized that yes, a dog constrains you simply because they need tended to and taken outside at least 3 times a day, but I also realized that as a slightly extroverted introvert, I spend and enjoy most of my time at home, anyway, so it won’t be a huge shift from my current routine.
How did this all come about? Well, Cesar and I heard about a young dog in Puerto Rico who was abandoned and found on the street with some other dogs and rescued by a sweet lady whose passion is rescuing and rehabilitating dogs (saints work!). Our neighbor shared the post about a few of the dogs needing adopted, and Cesar tagged me in the post. At first, I got annoyed at him because a week prior, we had just agreed to stop tagging each other in dog posts because we were still in the mindset of waiting, but then Cesar was like, “No, I think this is our dog, I have a feeling. We should adopt her.” and I was like, “Okay done.” haha didn’t take too much arm twisting on my end. Of course, we took the time to learn more about her, the context of her rescue, her health, and ultimately fell in love with her from afar.
We’ve known for about a month now and have been dealing with paperwork, she got spayed and had to recover for 10 days, and we’re finally getting her this weekend – she’s flying from Puerto Rico to Newark, and we’re picking her up! How fun is that?
Because she’s from Puerto Rico, we wanted to name her something Spanish, and she’s so small and cute, we decided to name her Bella (pronounced bae-uh in Spanish), and we’re going to call her “Bae” as a nickname.
Y’ALL, I CAN’T BELIEVE WE’RE GETTING A DOG.
A few quick notes: we’re going to crate and potty train her, she is 6-months old, and a little under 8 pounds. We’re planning our new routine with her – I’ll take her out in the morning, whoever gets home first will take her out after work, and Cesar will take her out at night. She is going to sleep in her “house” aka crate, and we’re going to train her to follow commands. If we can’t do it right, then we’re gonna hire someone who can, haha. In terms of demeanor, Bella seems to have a really sweet personality, she is already socialized with other dogs, but we’ll see for ourselves on Sunday! The lady taking care of Bella has nearly 40 dogs that she’s fostering (2 dog momma’s with pups included), so I doubt that she has been getting much personal attention, but we are so grateful for the work that her caregiver is doing for her and all the other dogs in PR.
Of course, I’ll share some photos of Bella once we have her – stay tuned.
Help! What tips/best practices/favorite products do you have to share with me for dog mom life? Would love to hear from you.
xx Marah Elizabeth
