Being home for Christmas means a lot of different things for
me. It means getting a lot of good food, made by my mother, it means getting to
see my sister, who lives all the way on the other side of Canada, and who I
only get to see about once a year; it means hanging out with my dad and
spending awkward afternoons and evenings with extended family members; but most
of all, it means spending a lot of time with my dog.
When I was growing up, we had a dog named Molly. She was a
great dog, super protective of me and my sister, but not the smartest. When she
died, at thirteen years old, my dad was very firm that we would not be getting
another dog any time soon. I was about half through high school at that point,
and I was miserable that we wouldn’t have another dog. When I graduated, I had
some friends over for a party. One friend said that she would not be able to
come, because she had to watch her family’s new puppy. I told my mom, and she
said that my friend should bring her puppy over. The puppy was a very lively
Australian Shepherd, and within an hour of my friend bringing him over, my dad
was lying on the floor in front of the fireplace, with the puppy fast asleep on
his chest. After that, it was only a matter of time before my dad crumbled to
pressure, and we got a dog. We started to look on the SPCA website, and
immediately found a dog we liked. Her name was Jovie and she had been moved
around from home to home, because she was simply too big for most families. We
talked about it as a family, and we decided that a large dog was perfect for us.
When we went back to look at her on the website, she was gone. I called the
SPCA and the woman who answered the phone said that Jovie had found her “forever
home.” I was confused at first. Was she saying that Jovie was dead? But no, forever
home is just a term that people use to say that an animal has found a good
family to take them in.
So, we went back to looking for the perfect dog. A few days
later, on Kijiji, my mom found Jovie again! Once again, Jovie was being moved
along, probably because she was too big. We immediately went to the house, in
the west end of Ottawa, to meet Jovie, and hopefully take her home. The house
she was living in when we went to meet her was tiny. Jovie was about the size
of the tiny dining room at the front of the house where we met her. The family
who had her said they needed to get rid of her, because their son was allergic.
But Jovie would have been miserable in such a small home.
We took her home the next day. On the drive home, Jovie
chewed through her leash and harness, probably because she was so nervous about
coming to a new home once again. Inside the house, she sniffed her way through
everything upstairs and downstairs, and tried to chew more things. She decided
that the comfiest place to sleep was in the bathtub, and surprised my sister
when she got up early the next morning to shower before work.
Jovie soon got used to living with us in the middle of
nowhere. She is now older and lazier, but she still loves to play, and run
around, and “help” my mother when she is cooking, mostly by sitting right
beside her and glaring at the food in case something drops. She gets very happy
when my sister or I come home for a visit, and very upset when we leave. Last
time I was home, when I brought my duffel bag to the door, Jovie hid under the
coffee table and would not let me pet her before I left. For the first few months,
she wouldn’t bark, but now she barks at everything and anything that comes
close to her home. Jovie is not the smartest
dog, but she does understand food and walks, and anything that she loves. She
always gets very excited when my dad goes into the kitchen, because he always
gives her snacks, and she knows when someone goes to the door, she might get to
go outside too.
Getting to see Jovie is my favourite part of going home. I
can talk to everyone else in the family on the phone, but I miss my dog when I
am not at home. It’s nice to have that unconditional love and devotion. No matter
how my life is going, Jovie is always happy to see me, and I am always happy to
see her.
