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A Letter to My Dog
Today’s post is really different from what I would normally talk about, because today is a special day! Today is Finley’s gotcha-day, which (for those of you who don’t know) is the day that you adopt your pet. I don’t often bring Finley into any of my blog posts although I have talked about him quite a bit on my twitter. So while this post isn’t something that I would normally do, I still want to share it with you!
A little backstory…
After college I had moved out into my own apartment, and while I was still very close to my family (in fact, you can see both my grandparents house AND my parents house from my apartment) it was my first time living on my own and it was a little lonely at times. As time went on, I started thinking of a way to convince my landlords to let me have some sort of pet in my no-pets allowed apartment. I figured that it shouldn’t be too hard to do, since my grandparents were my landlords and all. So I started dropping hints every now and then, and one day my coworkers told me that I should bring all the pros and cons of having a pet to my grandparents.
I typed up a nice little fact sheet (pets can help mental health, gets me out of the house, and things along those lines) and since I knew I would be at work a bit, I decided that even though I love dogs more, I would ask for a cat since they’re more independent. To my surprise, they agreed! Little did I know that they were already discussing with my parents about getting me a puppy for Christmas that year. Enter my mom, who convinced me to hold off on getting a cat, and since I had pretty much ruined the surprise, informed me that my grandparents were looking at puppies.
We all started browsing the internet to find the perfect breed that would work for my lifestyle and apartment size. (Side note: adopting is always better than buying from a breeder, but in this case we wanted to make sure that we wouldn’t be getting any surprises like, the dog we thought would be small ends up being the size of a lab). We ended up deciding on some sort of poodle mix, mainly because they typically shed less and we already knew a little bit about what they would be like since my parents own a Lhasa Apso/Poodle mix.
Meeting Finley
A few days before December 11th 2018, my grandparents told me that one of my aunts was good friends with a breeder who had the exact breed that my grandparents were looking for, so they decided that they would pick me up after work and we would go take a look, just to see what this particular breed looked like in person. So we drive over, and once we get there they tell us they have four puppies for us to look at: 3 cockapoos (cocker spaniel/poodle mixes) and 1 cavapoo (cavalier king Charles spaniel/poodle mix). We decided we wanted to see the cavapoo first, and the minute she sat this fluffy little puppy into our arms, we fell in love with him. We ended up leaving with the newest member of the family that day.
Funny boy
Ever since we brought him home, he has been nothing short of amazing! He picked up on commands like sit, lay down, and shake, but we still haven’t mastered stay or come yet. He makes me laugh all day long, and I’ve even noticed that my migraines have decreased in quantity and severeness. I’m excited to get home after work to spend time with him, and I’ve started taking walks around the neighborhood with him. He is my furry equivalent of a child and the best thing to have happened to me in a while.
While he’s definitely got much bigger than the 15 pounds we were told he would be (last time I checked he was 25 pounds) and sheds a little more than we were anticipating, I can’t picture having any other dog. He’s incredibly clumsy, but can jump ridiculously high on his little rabbit legs and is one of the fastest dogs I’ve ever seen. My dad has given him so many nicknames (Finicles; Finklemeister; Finkleburg) and he loves to terrorize Hudson, my parents 13 year old lhasapoo but they’ve slowly come to an understanding that Finley is a little wild and crazy, while Hudson would much rather lay on the couch and sleep.
He loves being held like a baby and will ALWAYS try to give you kisses, whether you want them or not. Whenever he gets a new toy, he will immediately rip the ears off, and has even been known to chew through “indestructible” toys yet has kept his very first toy almost completely intact. When he sleeps, he needs at LEAST half the bed or couch because he prefers sleeping on his back with his legs going in every direction. One of his favorite toys is his rubber chicken, and yes that is just as annoying as it sounds, but I would never take it away from him. He’s afraid of drains in the road and paper towels, and to be honest I’m not sure why. He absolutely loves ice and snow, but isn’t too sure about swimming.
The biggest surprise to me though was just how much my grandparents fell in love with him. My grandfather refuses to let Finley be by himself all day while I’m at work, and so he comes by every day to take him for a walk and hang out with him, and whenever I walk into my grandparents house without him, the first question I get asked is “where is Finley?” All our friends in the neighborhood love him, and even people I haven’t met know my dog because so many people talk about him and show their coworkers pictures of him!
Thank you
And so to my grandmother, who isn’t a dog person but has fallen in love with this goofy pup, to my grandfather who wasn’t too keen to have a dog in the apartment but has since become best friends with him, thank you. Thank you so much for this little fuzzy bundle of joy that I’ve gotten to see every day for the past year, and hopefully every day for quite a few years to come. Thank you to my parents and their dog who put up with us when we come to visit, and Finley decides that he needs all the attention, who cares about that other guy? Thank you to my aunt for suggesting we go take a look because you never know, and thank you to everyone who puts up with me talking about my beautiful, funny pup constantly.
I can’t imagine life without him.
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Great post, Finley is so adorable 😍😍
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