Lost in the system

I got a call from the San Diego Humane Society yesterday, informing me that my big dog Isis had been relinquished. They traced me through her mircrochip, the microchip that I didn’t tell her owners I had put in her. For this very reason, I wanted to know what was going on with my dog and be able to keep tabs on her. They couldn’t tell me much, like why she got turned in, but they did ask if I wanted to take her back. Yeah, I wanted to take her back. But could I? Only if I owned a house with a huge yard and didn’t work and wasn’t six months pregnant. But I’m pregnant and live in an apartment, the total opposite of a big house with a big yard, so I couldn’t. They said that her owner was still there and asked if I wanted to talk to her. Apparently, she couldn’t keep up Isis’s training since she has her kids (one of them is just over a year old) and she couldn’t afford the $35 a month it cost to buy her food.

I want to say I can’t blame her, that’s the right thing to say. But I do. I was under the impression her young teenage daughters were going to take care of her. I’m assuming they did, but soon lost interest after learning Isis has an infinite amount of energy that you can’t wear down. And then she became the mom’s problem, a problem she just didn’t want to deal with.

It makes me sad. At 12 years old I gladly took care of my pets, all 10 of them. I had 4 birds, 2 dogs, 3 cats, and a rabbit. I didn’t view it as a chore. I thought of them as family. I still think of them as family, and you don’t just get rid of your family members like they’re disposable. A baby is much more responsibility than owning a dog, even an energetic one, so why didn’t she give her baby up for adoption when she got tired of losing all her sleep, why did she continue to have kids? It was a responsibility she signed up for, knowing what she was getting into. Just like with my dog, she knew what she was getting into. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t hide her energy level.

All my sadness and disappointment won’t change anything, except for prove my point that your pets are more loyal and reliable than most people. Now my dog is like a foster child waiting for a home, lost in the system until someone adopts her. The Humane Society will be good for her. They’re a no-kill shelter so she’ll be there until someone chooses her. They’ll even train her so she’ll know basic commands. And she’ll get exercise and interaction everyday, every hour.

“The more people I meet the more I like my dog.” - Unknown

 

When We Were Young

I read this post by Mum and it made my eyes well up with tears. My 17 year old sister in law called my parents unsuccessful. It hurts me and it kind of offends me, because in my mind, they aren’t. They have a loving family and strong ties and are happy people. Granted, we aren’t loaded with cash like Bill Gates (but who is), but we live in California and can somehow afford to drive our cars at $4.50 a gallon, pay our $1000 rent for our apartment/townhomes, and still manage to go out on weekends to do fun things with each other. Other people marvel at how we essentially throw money away just to live 20 minutes from the beach and have a year round summer. We make the best of what we have, and in that sense we’re probably more successful than say, Oprah. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit. I can’t say that I blame her though. When I was 17, I had my whole life planned out. And nowhere in those plans of mine were there having a baby and being married by 21. I worked hard in high school so I could go to college (my parents were going to pay the whole way while I was an undergrad), get a degree in veterinary science, find my husband in grad school, get married and have my first baby between 25 and 27. Somewhere though, I had to work to put myself through college and pretty soon college wasn’t as important as paying bills. And if I could go back and tell my 17 year old self that my life would end up like this, I would have laughed and thought I was just having a really good drug trip. The point is, life happens and you have to roll with it. In the end, things will turn out ok, one way or another. I wish I was that young again.

 

Father’s Day Fun

Today was spent with my in-laws at the beach. We boogy-boarded, ate sandwhiches and buried the kids. Lots of fun was had by all, especially my father in law, who proclaimed this was the “best father’s day ever”.

And the end result of my “tanning” was lobster red legs. That will be fun to wear pants in when I work for my full 8 hour day tomorrow.