Avery Sutherland

A Girls Best Friend

When you are younger I feel like every kid goes through a phase of wanting some kind of pet and usually being heartbroken by being told no. Well the same thing happened to me except my heart grew a little more. I always had dogs in my life ever since I was a baby most of the time by all three sets of grandparents having one or more pet dogs. I would beg my parents all the way home for a dog. Eventually I would give up and just fall asleep during the rest of the ride home.

I remember one day and it was really dark in the car and I was with my parents because we had to get my sister Langley from gymnastics. So on the way there my parents began saying “so your dad and I have been thinking” and automatically my face lit up. Then they said something about getting a dog but it was very faint because of my screeching scream. Once my sister got in the car they told her immediately knowing that I could probably not last a second holding in any kind of secret especially involving a pet dog.

A few days later my mom finally decided that it would be time to go and look for a dog. We went to the SPCA knowing that they have special needs dogs which was exactly what my mom wanted. We walked through the hallways that smelled like sanitizer and old dog food at the same time. I remember I wore a dress thinking that maybe if I looked really good the dog would like me the most out of my family. We walked to each cage just waiting until we found one that my mom liked. Finally my mom stopped and we all crouched down to the dog’s level only for the dog to seem more frightened. She looked down at me and said “Avery what do you think about this one” I looked at her very unsure what to say so I just said “he is super adorable”.  Close to the outside of the dogs cage was a food bowl. The food was surprisingly still in it, so we each got a few pieces of moist dusty, dog food trying to hand it to him. The dog still only got even more skittish it looked like all he wanted was to hide under a rock.

We all got up and followed my mom to the front desk, and she asked if we could take a closer look at the frightened dog. I thought that she was crazy for wanting to look at him even more because he was not very active or playful. We went into this paper white room that still smelled like hand sanitizer and old dog kibble. We waited in that room for which felt like an eternity but I was only about 7 years old so it was probably just 5 minutes. The workers walked in with this medium sized long haired dog that was almost as white as the walls. He had big brown eyes the color of fresh dirt. They carried a tennis ball in hand but he showed no interest of it what so ever. They took his leash of his head and the workers vanished almost immediately. They handed my mom the tennis ball on the way out so we decided to see what he would do if we threw it. He chased so hard after it his legs wiped out from underneath him which was very surprising. He went around to all of us and jumped on our legs and licked anything and everything that could have been on our faces. I remembered I got very upset because he screeched my legs with is claws and from that point on I majorly regretted looking nice for a dog.

Once we were all done there we got in our not at all clean Minnie van and drove away. I was very sad because I grew to like the dog and I did not think that we were going to get him. Two whole weeks passed and I was getting very anxious but that all vanished when I got off the bus one day when I got home from school. My mom was standing in our front yard with my new best friend. I can still remember what my mom was wearing and the excitement the dog felt when I lunged off the school bus. I was beyond happy and I just could not wait to play with him.

The memories I have with this dog will last me a lifetime and we have had some of my best days together and he will always be there for me. One thing that I learned from this memory is that if something is really boring you need to give it time and maybe it may just turn out perfectly and be one of the best times. When I met my dog he was so afraid and extremely unsure and so was I but now I got to know him and he got to know us and it has been some of the best eight or so years with him in my life.