My Dog Trooper

Trooper

Two memories stand out from when I was a kid. One was the day the Nintendo Entertainment System hit the shelves. The other was the day "a boy's best friend" came into my world. Who would have thought that this day would become one of the happiest days of my life?

It was in the middle of spring on a nice sunny day. I had just finished my last game from my recreational basketball league. Our team lost, but I put in my two points, along with two solid quarters of bench warming. I was never much of an athlete, but rather a "mathlete". Regardless, I still had a lot of fun playing sports.

On our way home from the game, my dad and I stopped at several pet stores. I was very confused. He neglected to tell me what we were doing, but I gladly played along. All together we must have stopped at four or five different pet stores. We bought a pack of dog bones, a dog collar and leash, dog shampoo, dog food, and a dog cage. Now I am not the kind of person to jump to conclusions, but I think I was catching on to something. We proceeded home after spending a near 200 dollars on dog supplies.

Once we got home, my dad asked, "Joe, What do you want to do today?" I could tell by the sound of his voice that he had asked a rhetorical question. Although at the age of eight I had no idea what a rhetorical question was, I knew he was telling me that we were on our way to the animal shelter.

My parents and I jumped into our 1989 blue Aerostar van. My brother was away on a camping trip, so it was just the three of us. The 20-minute drive felt like two hours, and I can remember every second of it. We drove up to the shelter on a smooth paved road that went up to a hill. An empty pasture was on our left side and an old cemetery was on our right. The shelter looked like a small prison. It stood alone in the middle of an open field, surrounded by fence. We jumped out of our van and headed up the walkway.

As we walked through the front door, we were forced to look at the cats. Walking through the cat section was the only way to get to the dog kennel part. It was similar to entering an amusement park through the gift shop. The cats all looked so cute, but that was not the reason I was there. We quickly headed toward the dog kennel.

All the dogs were barking and scratching at their cage. The dimly lit room smelled like wet dog. As we walked through the room, each dog had something about it that said, "I am not the one". I could not understand why. It was like someone was leaning over my shoulder and telling me not to pick this dog. "This dog is too big" or "that dog sheds too much" and "those dogs are too wild", "he barks too much", "too loud", and "too ugly". There must have been over 50 dogs that we passed.

Finally, in the very last cage on the right sat a little brown puppy staring at me with big beautiful brown eyes. He had big floppy ears and white paws. While every dog around him was biting at their cage or barking excessively, he sat there quiet as a bunny. I could tell that he was very scared because he was shaking. Without a second thought I knew this was the one.

A shelter lady came over and asked, "Are you adopting him? We had been watching Socks for a while." I thought to myself,