Married Life - The Search For A Dog

   

 
In August, 2008, I married my high school sweetheart, Jeremy. He joined the Coast Guard a couple years after high school and got married a year after his enlistment began. Our first station together was Honolulu, Hawaii. We had discussed getting a dog, but not until we moved to a different location. Our apartment wouldn't allow pets, so no matter what we wanted, we couldn't act upon it. It did not stop us from visiting the local animal shelters, though. We researched together what kind of dog would be best for us. We knew we wanted a smaller dog. With all the traveling we'd be doing as a Coast Guard family, a larger dog would be much harder to transport. Via car, a larger dog would take up a lot of room. Via plane, a larger dog would be a lot more expensive to transport.

Back in high school, I remember a conversation Jeremy and I once had. We decided on the pets that we wanted, their names, and chronological order. I know, I know; normal couples discuss their future kids' names, but not us. First, we wanted a rottweiler named Lizzie. At the same time, we wanted a cockatoo named Donahue. We wanted our second dog to be a Siberian husky named Nuka (Little Sister). Finally, in our golden years, we wanted a little American cocker spaniel named Delilah.

When Jeremy got his orders to California, we put in all our efforts to find an apartment that allowed pets. The serious search for a dog began, however, from Hawaii our resources were limited. During our official move to California, we were going to take a couple of weeks and detour in Oregon. This is where we decided to adopt our first fur baby together. After much research, we decided on a little chihuahua. Small, cute, and playful. We wanted the youngest one we could find for a reasonable price. We also wanted a girl dog. During the days before our flight from Honolulu to San Fran to Portland to Eugene, we checked daily with the local animal shelter, and we even checked craigslist.com. We found no matches at the shelter, and very few matches on craigslist. The search continues...