Our Mother’s Day weekend started out like any other, but ended up being a whole lot different than we expected or planned. With being so tight, Ben donated plasma (which has become a pretty normal routine in our life the past while), so I could have $25 to spend for Mother’s Day. To get some new clothes (I had bought none since having Jayden and well, you know, your body is just not the same), and to get the biggest bang for my buck, we went to Ross the night before Mother’s Day.
We packed up our little 8-month old son, and we were off! I was so excited to do some shopping. On the way there, Ben and I got on the topic of dogs and how we could not wait to get one, one day. Little side note here-we had been talking about and researching pit-bulls for some time and had decided on that as a dog. They get a bad rap with what horrible people do with them, but they are magnificent dogs. Loyal, good with children with their high pain tolerance (which is also why they are used in dog fighting-makes me sick), minimal shedding and short fur which makes for a much less messy house with the shedding), and are great with people and other dogs when socialized and properly trained. The best thing? They are very smart and easy to train, and also usually a good medium-size dog for a little town home like ours (although Caleb has grown to be much bigger than we expected). And did I mention that they are the cutest puppies ever?! Now for a background story-when house hunting, I promised Ben that if he got me a house, we could get a dog. Unfortunately with our situation, that did not seem like a possibility any time soon. We could not help being a little bummed about it as we drove.
Just as we were pulling in, we notice someone was selling puppies in Ross’s very parking lot, and not just any puppies, but Pit-bull puppies! Talk about sticking us with a dagger and twisting it! We just about went straight into the store completely heart broken, but decided to go and say hello, even though we knew we would not be able to get one, we could at least indulge and play for a bit, right?
They were all SO cute! One in particular caught our attention. A cute copper colored little sweetheart. He was whimpering in his sleep as when we got over to the puppies, so Ben quickly sat beside him and began stroking his soft fur, which seemed to do the trick, since the whimpering stopped and he nestled closer and closer into Ben with each stroke of his hand. Once he woke up, he was also the only one that did not try to chew on Jayden’s car seat, and seemed to be the runt of the litter. The other puppies would gain up on him and he would end up whimpering and trying to get away. We decided to pick him up and hold him out of the other puppies reach. A, because he seemed like he could use the break, and B, because he was just so stinkin’ cute! That’s when it happened, what we had feared would happen since the second we decided to walk over and play with the puppies. We.fell.in.love.
Let me tell you that dagger was really twisting right in our puppy loving hearts right about then, but we knew we had to be strong and turn and walk away. That was when our new little furry friend tried to follow us. A good ways away from the rest of the group too. Could that little piece of heaven have made it any harder on us? The owner seemed pretty touched by this, and obviously saw the good sales pitch it presented and came over telling us how much this puppy seemed to love us, and how it was meant to be, and that we just had to buy this cute little guy, but there was one BIG problem. He was selling this puppies for $250. That was a good ten times the amount we had with us to spend. We told him that we would love to, but just couldn’t at the time.
The man pushed further by saying, “Well I have sold a lot of puppies, and I have never seen one take to folks so quickly. I’ll tell ya what, what do you have that you can spend, and we will see what we can do.” Ben and I looked at each other, a little embarrassed to admit our humble amount to offer. He began to probe. “Two hundred?” Nothing. “One seventy-five?” Again nothing. “Well, okay one fifty, but that is the lowest amount I will accept.” Ben finally told the man that we really could not afford the dog, and the amount we had. “Oh, no no no”, said he man with a smirk and his hands clasped behind his head. We went to walk away for a second time, just to have the and the man amke one last attempt at a sale and ask, “Well could you get me one fifty in a week?” Ben hung his head. Agonizing over our situation, and his longing to give this dog a place in our home and family. It was hard to watch. Ben quietly explained our situation and why things were so tight. The man seemed to really feel for us, but began taking the puppy out of Ben’s arms anyway.
The man’s wife was sitting in the van and had been watching this whole thing play out. At this moment, she sternly told her husband, “You help these people out, that adorable little boy of theirs deserves this dog!” Ben and I turned bright red with the awkwardness of it all, while at the same time being quite flattered by her gesture in our behalf. The man stood looking at the ground, glancing up and us every so often, and then looking at the ground again. Ben and I assured him, it was fine and it would be better for us to wait anyway. Then the last thing we expected to happen that day happened, the man put that sweet puppy back in Ben’s arms and told Ben to give him all that he could and he would call it good, but only if we did not tell another soul who we had gotten our puppy from, and for what price. I could not help but cry a little. Even amidst all the craziness in our life at this point in time, getting this puppy just felt right. I know now Caleb was meant to be in our family, and I am so grateful to the kind salesman, his wife, and the Lord’s influence for making it all happen. This sweet dog has been a little miracle in our life and we love him and the joy he brings our home, with all of our hearts. He is our best friend and in many ways, an answer to prayer. We were even able to pull some money together for some dog food, a little stuffed hedge hog (we wanted to give him something to cuddle with, to make his separation from his siblings a bit easier), and food and water dish from Wal-Mart on the way home. We ended up using a plastic tote for his kennel (until we got a cheap little one on KSL a week later), and Ben turned one of his old belts into a little chew toy for him. It was crazy how things just fell into place. To save money later on, we also did his shots ourselves by buying them at the IFA store nearby. Even with the good deal, we were hesitant, but it just felt so meant to be. I am so glad we went for it.
As we drove home, I cuddled our sweet new addition to our family in my lap while he slept, all the while whispering how we were going to give him the best home ever, and welcoming him to our family. We talked about what his name should be on the way home. We played around with several, but could not decide. I have always loved the name Caleb, but was not sure if I wanted to save that name for my sons. We also wanted to call him lucky just because of the lucky deal we got with him, but that is just too cliché for a dog. On the way home I talked to my sister on the phone, who was coming over that day to let her know we were done with our errands and she could come over. We did not tell her we had just bought a puppy. I masked my obvious excitement by saying we had gotten a really good deal on something for Mother’s Day at Ross. After all, that was the truth. Imagine her surprise when I answered the door with this sweetheart in my arms. She held him, and helped us decide on a name. In the end, we went with Caleb. It just suited him, and after all, he was family and might as well have been a son.
It was such a happy day. Even thought I do still tease Ben about buying my yet another thing to take care of for Mother’s Day, but between you and me-Caleb is the best gift Ben has ever gotten me.
Just after getting out of the car right after buying him.
I think Cami really prefers him small and cuddly as compared to the jumping, huge, eighty-one pound maniac he can be now (when ever company is over, anyway). Hopefully he is a bit more mellow when she gets home from her mission in a little under a year and a half.
This is still Caleb’s favorite position to sleep in.
We are all so in love with him, and when we went to my parent’s the next day after church for our joint Mother’s Day celebration, my whole family fell in love too (even if they were a bit skeptical about it all, not knowing much about dogs, and having heard very bad things about pit-bulls), but I am happy to say they just love him now.
We were so in love with our little fur ball!
Opening presents! Just so you know, I do not always gift people pictures of myself, but my Mother had special requested this picture for Mother’s Day.
Ben was a sweetheart, and helped shade us. What a guy!
Happy Mother’s Day 2012! My BEST yet! I now had a child (which made it feel all the more real and special), and I got to welcome a new sweet boy to our family! It was a great weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment