Twenty years ago, we lost our dog to cancer, she was an American Eskimo; her name was Fluffy (my daughter named her), she was an all white beauty . The day we had to put her down my ex-husband and I vowed that we would never get another dog—it was too painful to lose one again.
After two weeks of mourning, chance had it that we would go for coffee at a strip mall that had a pet store. Hating the idea of pet stores and puppy mills, plus our vow to never get another dog, we felt relatively safe walking in. Our words to each other as we passed the threshold “they will never have a female American Eskimo -not in a million years”.
I walked right towards the whimpering puppies that were in a play gate. The sight and sound along with joyful laughs from people that were playing with the puppies drew us in. That is when I saw her. An adorable all white puppy that was the spitting image of our beloved Fluffy. I knew it would not be a female dog, so again, I felt safe to reach for it. I have always felt that female dogs are more loyal and the idea of a male marking his territories never appealed to me. The “it” was a she… oh no. But she didn’t even pay attention to me. She looked as though she wanted to get down. Of course my heart was breaking and so was my husbands as we both couldn’t take our eyes or hands off her. I told my ex that I was going to put her back into the pen— if she jumped on me to pick her up again I would take her home, if she didn’t we would walk out and not look back.
As I bent down to put the cute pup down she grabbed a hold of my neck and refused to let her feet hit the ground. She was no longer looking all over she was demanding my attention. I told my ex-husband to pick out a collar and leach, to get a cage, bowls and everything else we would need. He said lets come back tomorrow-we don’t have to rush this. I said “ I’m not leaving my baby here for all those kids to jump on” he agreed so we took her to our empty nest and named her Roxy.
On the way home we said that we would never let her on the bed and we needed to get her a proper dog bed. That night as she stirred and cried I took her out of the puppy cage and put her on my bed, where she slept across my neck as she did for the next two years. Everyone we knew said that they were happy we saved her from the pet store but the truth is she saved us. We didn’t know how lonely we were until her love filled our hearts and made our house a home.
RIP my dear angel, I love you forever.