My Personal Persona

This is a piece of writing that I wrote about when I first saw my dog:

Little Paws

We were walking home from ballet. We always passed a certain road after ballet. The road that always makes my sisters thumbs shake and her face go pale. It’s the street that Animal Haven is on.

Animal Haven is a dog shelter. We had been through this routine many times, where my sister begs our mom to go to Animal Haven, and our mom says no. She knows that if we go to Animal Haven, we will start begging for a dog. Of course, my sister asked our mom to go to Animal Haven. This time, our mom surprisingly said yes.  It’s probably because she wasn’t in the mood to start arguing with us. I knew that she could not be that generous without there being a catch. “You can look, but you can not beg me for a dog. Promise?” “Promise” we both replied with not as much energy as before. I did not exactly keep my promise.

When we got to Animal Haven, it had a strong smell of dog food. It wasn’t the most pleasant smell, but I could get used to it. They had a big screen on their wall showing us what dogs they had. All of the dogs looked so cute. The screen was showing pictures of all of the dogs, and if you thought one was cute, they would bring the dog down so that you could meet him or her.  When I looked at the screen, there was one dog that caught my eye. Her name was Vivienne. She was a long haired Chihuahua that was three pounds. “Mommy, can we please look at Vivienne?” I begged. My mom replied with a soft yes. I think the person who was working at Animal Haven really liked Vivienne because she seemed sort of reluctant to bring Vivienne down, but she did as she was asked. When the woman came down with her, I almost started crying. In the woman’s arms, was the cutest little dog I had ever seen. She was a dark brown color. Her color reminded me of really chocolaty hot cocoa. She had sort of a warm, homey vibe to her. When her eyes met mine, she seemed so innocent. I felt like I could read her mind. I looked at her little delicate paws and knew I had to get her.

Right when I had so much hope that we could get her, I thought about my last dog named Romeo. We were looking for a dog, so we went to the Westchester Humane Society. That time, my mom did not make us promise we wouldn’t start begging for a dog. We saw him on their dog screen, and he looked sweet and really cute. He was a Chihuahua, Pug mix. My mom asked if we could meet him. His name was Tanner. They took him down to meet us, and he seemed so cute and innocent, just like Vivienne. My mom finally gave in to us and agreed that we could get him.

We got him all of the stuff that he needed like his crate, his food and his toys. When we first took him home, he was acting really nicely with everyone. We loved him and he loved us. He was acting totally sweet. Then, the next week, he was acting pretty aggressive. He was growling at me, my dad and my sister. The only person who he was acting okay with was my mom. That night at the dog park, he got into a fight with one of the other dogs in the park. My mom was going to give him one more chance. But the next night, we had just eaten dinner and my parents were doing the dishes. Tanner was relaxing with me on the couch. I reached down to pet Romeo and he snapped at me. His teeth sunk down into my hand. It hurt so much. It didn’t only hurt my hand, it also hurt my feelings. I thought he liked me. When I saw him snap at me, I thought I was looking at a different dog. The Romeo who I saw at the shelter a couple of days ago didn’t remind me of the Romeo I was looking at. It was hard to believe. The dog at the shelter was cute and sweet. Right now, I didn’t feel like he was cute, as much as I felt like he was aggressive. That was it. Romeo was sent back to the shelter.

But I knew that Vivienne was different. She seemed so sweet and cute and there was no way I would ever see her bite me, or anyone. Finally, the person holding her said that we were allowed to pet her, but we should let her sniff our hands first. First, she sniffed my mom’s hand. Then she started leaning towards my hand. When she sniffed my hand, she automatically started licking it. I think that my sister also wanted Vivienne because my sister was grinning so wide, her gums were showing and her face was bright pink. I think that my mom could tell that I really wanted her because my mom said, “Does anyone else want her?” The woman explained to us about how the whole getting a dog system worked. Apparently, you have to sign a form about yourself and then they see who they think would be the best match for the dog. The woman explained to us about how several other people wanted Vivienne. My mom said that she’d sign the form, but we probably wouldn’t end up getting her. I knew from that day on, that that dog, had to be ours. She was all I wanted. If I could get her, I would never ask for anything ever again. I had to think of something. “She could be my birthday present and you don’t need to get me another birthday present for five more years.” “We’ll think about it,” my mom replied. That night, we got a call from Animal Haven saying that we won Vivienne. My mom thought and thought about it all night. Of course, she gave in and said yes. We changed her name to Mocha and she is now our one and only dog.