Happiness comes in small packages

I remember my childhood days were filled with memories of me feeding puppies and hugging street dogs. Out of the worry that I don't get rabies, my dad decided to buy me a dog and just like that, TOMO came into our lives. Mom was not happy with an animal in the house but well with time, Tomo became her baby. She was a beautiful loyal German shepherd who we sadly lost to cancer.

In 2012, one of my closest friends told me about this dog that needed a home. The description given to me was just that he is tied out all day and is not treated well. That was all that was needed to convince me. My grandmom loves dogs but specifically female dogs. Not that she hates male dogs, but she believes in the fact that female dogs are much more loyal. Knowing well that this may be a losing battle, I decided to involve just 1 member in the family who is as dog-crazy as me in taking the decision- my UNCLE. And by the next day, Fluffy was a part of our little family.

Picture Courtesy: Ritography 

Fluffy was more of a rescue mission rather than adoption. Before we got fluffy, I just had 1 worry- Tomo was an 11-year-old grandmom by now. I was worried that she may not be accepting of Fluffy, but then we decided to take a chance. Fluffy was a blessing in disguise for Tomo. Before Fluffy came along, Tomo slowly was beginning to show signs of ageing. She would not get up and run to the door when the doorbell rang anymore, in the last 15 minutes of her walk she would almost be crawling back home and she looked tired more often than usual. With a younger dog coming along, the playing increased, the running around the house increased and walks became more of a fun activity.

Picture Courtesy: Rajarshi

The first thing we did after bringing Fluffy home was getting him into the shower, followed by a health check-up. There were a couple of cuts and bruises around his ears and his upper body which needed treating as well. Things I learnt from this checkup: 

1. Fluffy is not a fan of the clinic

2. When the doctor is checking your dog and he says 1 ball, it does not mean get him a ball to play. It means he has ONE BALL.

This was something new to me but this made us love fluffy even more. He was unique.

So let's talk adoption now. When we initially got Fluffy, everything was not rosy. It took Fluffy some time to adjust to us and Tomo. Fluffy had his tantrums and did not like certain things which we were unaware of. This brings me to my point. I am sure, all of you must have read this meme somewhere. I have an issue with this meme. It spreads this misconception that on adopting you will instantly be bringing home a dog who will love you. It's not TRUE! When you decide on adopting you need to prepare yourself for a lot of patience. The first couple of months are going to be hard. You have to give your dog that adjustment time and love that he/she may have never received. The key to it all is patience. I do know that lots and lots of people get irritated when pets misbehave but… let's be honest here. There are a lot of similarities between kids and pets. So, it's my hope that with this post you open yourself up more to adoption and understand to what comes along with it.