Getting a New Dog

Tell us about a time you went to a zoo, aquarium, pet store, or animal shelter. What did you notice about the animals who were inside the cages? How do you think they felt about being there?

“So, along the lines of the pet store. When I was about twelve, I think, um, our old dog had passed away and um, we were missing the companionship around the house, so my family made the trip to the pet store. And my mom was dead set on a cocker spaniel. And there were cocker spaniels at this particular pet store. So we headed down there, we go to the cocker spaniel pin. And, there’s, I don’t know, maybe five or six cocker spaniels in this pin. And they all look kind of tired, listless, you know, not putting on the show, really. There was one dog, who was… not a cocker spaniel, he was a terrier mix – with the ugliest frame you’ve ever seen. He was wiry, he was long legged, and awkward looking, but full of energy. And he was… just, he was doing the show, as best as he could. He was tearing into all these cocker spaniels. He was dragging them around by the ears. And he was, you know, getting them into the water bowl, and washing their feet and, just terrorizing them. And um, it’s interesting because the music, you hear the lower voice, that’s maybe a little less active, and you hear this higher voice that’s running around and it’s kind of a banter back and forth, between these two characters. So it’s an interesting connection that reminded me of this incident.  That dog ended up going home with us, of course. Um, my mom was sort of like, you know, ‘I wanted a cute cocker spaniel,’ and this guy was about as ugly as they can get, all personality. And we loved him for seventeen years or so.”