Finding Fifi and Why I Couldn’t Keep Her #FindingFifi
I have been wanting to have a pet. My first choice would be a labradoodle dog. Every time I see a cute dog, it melts my heart. Unfortunately, the plan of getting a pet dog has to be put on hold for the time being. My husband and I sometimes travel abroad for extended periods of time and it would be difficult and expensive to have someone take care of a dog for us during those travels away from home.
For the past few months, I have been seeing more and more dogs, both online and at our neighbors. The desire to have my own dog became more intense as I observed more and more of them. It seemed like I would see dogs everywhere I looked. It may sound crazy but that was the way I was beginning to feel. It was Tuesday morning that I heard a strange noise outside my window.
It was five o’clock in the morning and still dark outside. Since I am a scaredy cat, I did not bother to go outside and look. Instead, I went to the bedroom and woke my husband. He did not like it because I was disturbing him from his sleep. He told me to go look for it myself, so I looked out the front window but saw nothing on the porch. I was still too scared to go outside of the house to find out what was making the noise.
Confronted with Something
Since the noise was not on-going, I continued doing what I was doing. The day passed and I heard nothing more. At six o’clock in the evening, I went out to get some wood to start a fire in our wood burning stove. When I opened the door, to my surprise, I was confronted with something I was not expecting. There was an animal on the porch right in front of the door. At first, I thought it was a raccoon so I called my husband. I told him there was a raccoon by the door trying to get in. Since we had encountered raccoons on our porch before, he grabbed his baseball bat to scare it away. When he opened the door he saw that it was not a raccoon after all but a dog.
The dog was shivering and obviously hoping to force her way inside the house. I can’t blame her because the temperature that day was sub zero. We opened the door and the stray dog came right in without hesitation. Since we had just finished roasting a turkey that day, we decided to give her some. After she quickly devoured the turkey, my husband jokingly asked what we would name her. Without much consideration, I said we should name her FIFI.
Harbinger of Things to Come
Fifi turned out to be a very sweet and affectionate dog. I began to think that we might keep her because it gets lonely here sometimes with just me and my hubby. Since my hubby and I don’t have kids, I thought having a dog would help, especially during the long and cold winter season but my husband reminded me that she was someone else’s dog and we would have to try to find the owner. I was disappointed but knew that was what we had to do. Then, less than an hour after we had let her in, she had an accident on our floor without any indication that she needed to go outside. We let that pass and made sure to let her out before we went to bed so that she would hopefully take care of her business without further problems.
When we sat down to watch TV, she seemed unusually interested in the TV but then soon went behind my chair, laid down, and fell asleep. In retrospect, we should have recognized that as a harbinger of things to come. I commented that she looked like she was used to sleeping on a bed the way she stretched out her legs in all directions but if she had been sleeping in a bed, it certainly wasn’t one that was inside. Before going to bed, my husband woke her up to make sure she went outside and let her back in a few minutes later.
Let the Reality Sink In
It was around two o’clock in the morning when my husband woke up. He saw that she had made a really big mess in the living room again only this time she did both number 1 and number 2. My husband tried to confine her to a small area in the bathroom which would have been the first step in house training but she stubbornly refused to remain there. It was then that she began to remind me of myself when my husband would try to get me to do something that I did not want to, haha. My husband later admitted that he also had the same thought in dealing with her but did not say anything until I first mentioned it.
The next day, my husband and I talked about the situation and decided we could not keep her. It had taken us a few hours to get over our initial infatuation and let the reality sink in. Suddenly, all of the reasons that my hubby had previously given me as to why we shouldn’t take on a dog now came back to me. We both agreed that adopting her would not be a good idea. He called the nearby dog clinic and they said that they would take her for a few days and then send her to the nearest humane society. We were feeling a little guilty because we thought she might be put to sleep if her owners were not found and she did not get adopted.
Be Careful What You Wish For
When we got in the car to take her away, she again, stubbornly refused to get in. My husband had to get out and push while I was pulling in order to force her in the car. We were both getting pretty frustrated with her uncooperative behavior and despite her otherwise sweet and affectionate personality, our conclusion that she was going to be a big headache if we kept her was reinforced. After we got to the animal hospital, my husband asked about her eventual fate, and to our relief, they told us that she would not be euthanized. So fortunately for us, we won’t be losing any sleep over our decision.
Lesson learned: be careful what you wish for. I got the dog when I least expected it. I also learned that caring for a dog is a lot harder than I thought, especially during the winter season. Bye, bye, Fifi. Have a good one.