And Then There Were Three

Chris and I had been wanting a dog for a while. He loves dogs and even grew up with a dog named Jack who died when Chris was 22. Almost 10 years later, Chris was getting the itch to own a dog again, specifically a pug. Shortly after we got married, he started planting the “We should get a pug” seed into my head. I was a little hesitant at the idea at first because I’ve never owned a pet in my entire life, but after a few months of Chris constantly showing me random pictures of adorable little pugs on the internet, I, too, had developed pug fever and was sold on the idea. We would get a pug, but not until we moved into a house.

We had originally planned on renting a house when our apartment lease ended a month ago, but due to financial reasons, we decided to hold off on a house until November 2015. We were both a little disappointed with this decision because it meant we would have to wait another year to get a dog. Well, after some discussion about our timeline life plans, we decided that in addition to moving into a house in November 2015, we would start trying to have a baby around that time, too, which meant we would go ahead and get a dog now so we wouldn’t have to experience too many big life changes at once.

So we started searching for a pug. The first place we looked was pug rescue websites, but unfortunately, we couldn’t find what we were looking for. We knew for sure that we wanted a purebred, male, fawn pug around 1 year old so we could name him Otis (like Milo and Otis), but most of the pugs at the pug rescues are old, mixed breeds, unhealthy, or all of the above. The other problem with some of the pug rescue sites we looked at was that they are not kept up-to-date. One day, we did actually manage to find a one-year-old, male, fawn pug, but he got adopted right away and the rescue never bothered to update their website to reflect that. We were so bummed when we found out that pug had been taken so quickly, so we decided to start working on our adoption application so we would be one step ahead next time we found a pug we wanted to adopt. It turns out the adoption application was four pages long and the adoption process as a whole would be even more tedious. At this point, Chris and I decided to look elsewhere for our pug.

Chris started checking Craigslist daily to see if anyone would be selling or even giving away the kind of pug we were looking for. There were a few times when we were very tempted to just get a pug puppy from a breeder, but having a puppy would be difficult since we both work full-time and neither of us would be home during the day to prevent the puppy from going to the bathroom all over our apartment. Even though the pug rescue idea didn’t work out, and getting a puppy was out of the question, we remained hopeful. We also promised each other that if we found the perfect pug in another city, we would make the trip to get him.

Last Tuesday while I was at work, Chris texted me and told me to be home by 5:30pm because he was taking me somewhere as a surprise. I immediately assumed he was taking me on some kind of date night, so I made sure to get home in time like he told me to. Once we got in my car, he said we needed to get gas and then stop at an ATM because the place we were going only takes cash. I was immediately confused. I still had a quarter tank of gas left, so how far were we going? And what kind of place only takes cash these days? I decided not to think too much about it and let myself be surprised, and surprised I was: we ended up driving for an hour and ended up in a residential neighborhood in Manteca! At this point, my assumption about date night had been tossed out the window; the only other reason I could think of as to why Chris had taken me all the way out to Manteca was because we were getting a pug puppy. As it turns out, I was only half right:

“Do you know why we’re here?” Chris asked me as I parked in front of the house and turned off the car.

“We’re getting a pug puppy!” I replied enthusiastically.

“Close. We’re getting a male, fawn pug! He’s one year old, and his name is already Otis!”

*Cue all the feelings of excitement and tears of happiness*

Chris went on to tell me that he had found a Craigslist ad for the dog over the weekend. He immediately called the owner to find out if the dog was still available and why on earth he would be selling it. Apparently, the owner is an old guy who said he just didn’t have the energy to give the dog the time and attention he needs, so he thought it would be best to find the dog a loving home, particularly with a younger owner. As soon as the owner told Chris that the dog’s name is Otis, Chris asked, “HOW SOON CAN I COME PICK HIM UP?”

We have had Otis for almost a week now, and we are just over-the-moon in love with this little guy. He is so friendly, energetic, loveable, and basically the cutest thing ever! We do have some work to do with Otis, though. His previous owner never kept a collar on Otis and never took him out on a leash, so right now, we’re trying to get Otis used to both those things. Otis also needs to work on learning commands (he only knows “sit” and “no”), so we plan to take him to obedience classes at our local Petco. Luckily, he is mostly potty trained so the hard work is pretty much done!

I still can’t believe we finally got our Otis. We’ve been talking about and looking for this exact dog for so long, and now we finally have him. I’ve been calling him our little Christmas miracle since we found him a couple days before Christmas. Now that Christmas is over, I’m looking forward to starting the new year with Otis. I’m excited to to spoil him and watch him grow. I’m excited to become “parents” with Chris. I’m excited for life as a family of three.