Last year I shared my daughter’s crafty plea to get a hamster:
A bit later, when she’d done the things we said she’d need to do to earn it, we headed to Petco to buy the hamster. Spoiler alert: we didn’t get a hamster, but we got a dog.
I find it necessary to give some background here, that this wasn’t necessarily a whim or something we hadn’t thought out.
My daughter had been asking for a dog for years. I maintained that maybe when all the kids were older (and in school), I’d consider it, when I had the time to invest in training and caring for a dog.
I liked the idea of someday looking for a rescue that fit our family, but I knew my kids wouldn’t be OK with going to shelters and leaving empty handed if we didn’t meet the right one.
As fate would have it, when we walked into Petco, the local animal shelter had a table set up and kittens that were up for adoption, so we stopped to say hello. My husband noticed a crate beside the table with a little dog in it and they became fast friends. We asked questions and found that she was one of 20+ dogs who came up on a “puppy bus” from a New Orleans kill shelter and she was up for adoption.
We got her out of the crate and everyone fell in love with her. She is a Chihuahua mix (we think she’s mixed with Dachshund but we’re not sure) and though I’ve historically been very uncomfortable around little dogs, I loved her too.
Before we knew it, we were taking her home. She was with a foster family for about a week after being transferred to a shelter here, and they named her Khloe. We didn’t think it fit her (it was also weird since my daughter had a friend named Chloe) and she didn’t know or respond to it yet. With my Facebook page’s help we settled on Nola, to honor her New Orleans roots. The picture below my husband took on the car ride home (I was driving) and it just captures her so well. I don’t think I could explain how happy she was to leave with us that day. I will say she has never been happier on a car ride!
So anyway, we brought her home – where she is not spoiled at all.
No, not a bit.
She loves to “help” me work.
Sometimes, she even gives me a little space.
The kids learned the hard way that anything on the floor is fair game.
They estimated she was a year to a year and a half old in August 2015 but we’re not sure. She definitely still has some puppy behaviors. After her Sit Means Sit training (post to come!) we are so happy she is a part of our family. I had no idea you could love a dog this much.
My daughter did end up getting her hamster later!
If you have a dog, how did you find each other?
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
[…] all opinions are my own. Despite loving our rescue dog, we definitely had a rocky start. When we first brought Nola home she was calm and friendly and didn’t bark. One day when my husband came down the steps with […]
Awww, what a fun story! My family got my first dog when I was just a baby, but it was really the family dog. When I was about 11, she had a litter of puppies (for the 3rd time) and we were giving them away. I was crying as I was cuddling with the last puppy when I heard my mom on the phone telling someone not to come look at the puppy because we had decided to keep it. I’m tearing up just thinking about that day. Gotta love a good story about adding a pet to the family 🙂
I had a hamster briefly and a guinea pig (in the basement, never got to play with him) as a kid so I really wanted my kids to have a PET despite my hang ups about the work involved!!
Of course now I’m like dogs live forever, right? *cries*
Awww this is great! Thanks for sharing! She looks so laid back! My husband had our husky while we were dating, and we got a pug about a year ago, if not longer. They can be a pain; for instance, the pug pooped upstairs today (ugh) , but we love them!! They really do warm up to you rather quickly! Our husky was part of our wedding! Lol. Looking forward to the training post!
We had a LOT of potty issues which were really difficult for me. It’s improved a bit since switching to 2x/day feeding but it’s still poop in the house at least once a week and I feel like I am forever finding puddles. 🙁 I don’t really blame her though because we’ve had snow on the ground forever!