By: Damaris H.
In December I went to the Irvine Animal Care Center’s Home For the Holidays Pet Adoption event in Irvine. There were dogs, cats, and rabbits up for adoption. My roommates and I decided to inquire about the adoption process as we were hoping to adopt a dog by end of the year.
Close to 100 shelters had booths. Many animals wanted to find their forever home. We played and cuddled up to many dogs. They were adorable and irresistible. Out of the many booths we visited, the last one we stopped by was the Western Riverside County Animal Shelter. I loved that they gave the dogs festive holiday names like “santa’s helper”, “ginger”, “noel”, and “mistletoe”.
As we were looking down the aisles of cages we finally found the one. Tinsel! We instantly knew he needed us. Tinsel was so cute! My roommate has taken a strong liking to Dachshunds so of course, it was love at first sight. I fell in love with Tinsel as well. He was calm, collected and friendly, all the qualities that we had been looking for in a dog. All my other roommates approved. We knew that this would be the dog for us. We signed the adoption papers and he was lawfully ours.
Once we left the adoption place with Tinsel, we had to dress him up. I bought him a cute leash and collar. Afterwards, we went to Target and bought him food and treats. When he arrived to our place, he seemed a little shy first but then, he started exploring his surroundings and sniffing all of us. It was the most adorable thing ever. We took him out for a walk and he started making friends with people he saw walking by and wagging his tail. He seemed really happy. We voted on a new name and in the end we decided to call him Stanley.
I’ve had him for a little over two months now, and all of my roommates and I are getting accustomed to living with a dog. Stanley is getting used to his forever home and family as well. We are more careful about leaving things out that might hurt him. We need to teach him not to chew on shoes!! But other than that, he is a little 13 month old blessing.
