Living with my mom we only had one pet. His name was Mosos. He had been my mom's first child [she liked to say] she had him years before I was born. Mosos, unfortunately, passed away around 2018 at 18 years old. I as well had a beloved pet that I recently had to give up due to my living situation. His name was Coffee but we pronounced it like “co-fi”. In some way he was my child as well, I protected and cared for him from a very young age. Both my mom and I didn't want to replace them. I can't speak on behalf of my mom’s feelings but for myself, I struggled with the idea of this. I know things can't last forever, especially living beings as much as we want them to. I wasn't sure if I was ready to go through it again, I had experienced both sides and each time I felt terrible. To this day I sometimes find myself looking back and rethinking my choices, and what they must have felt. Was Mosos content? Was Coffee confused about why I never came back from him? These were things I couldn't stop but still shed a tear for. I can't stop these things.

It was January 2020, a new year, a new home. My family and I felt that in order to complete this happy home we should add a pooch to the mix. I knew I wanted a smaller dog, smaller sh*t. Then my mom got a text from Miriam. Miriam used to work with my mom before I even turned double digits and have since been friends outside of work. In the message, she said that- Miriam's sister was pregnant and was due very soon. She had Charly as well as two other cats at home. Arian is her name, she felt that this would be too much, and also have a baby on the way. The reason behind that we would soon find out later. We saw his pictures and he was so adorable. He lived in Arizona at that time and in the video you could see him playing fetch in the blazing sun. In my defense, I think all dogs are cute even if they are dirt ugly. Charly isn't ugly of course but he looked like the perfect dog for us. Charly is a mutt we can't tell what he is mixed with but our best guess would be a terrier mix. He is a small/medium dog predominantly black with white on his nose, forehead and chest, and his tail curls slightly in words. Back to the story- Arian lived in Arizona but she was coming down to visit Miriam and decided she would bring Charly so we could meet him and potentially take him home.

Soon he was here. We went to Miriam's house, a small gated community. I remember being so excited yet nervous because what if we couldn't take him home or my mom didn't want him? Where would he go then? When we got there we saw him, he was a lot smaller than I had imagined and was super hyper. We blamed this on meeting us for the first time. We took him on a walk to bond with him and he was perfectly fine, he seemed to enjoy our company. My family and I really loved him and he was highly praised for being a good dog. So then we decided to take him home, Arian had said it could be a trial run and if he didnt work out we could bring him home. We got in the car and started to drive off, everything was going well until it wasn't. We had exited the highway and he started to go crazy. It was the cars of course but we had been told he does well in the car. After all, they had driven from Arizona. This was not our main concern; it only went downhill from there. We get home and he goes absolutely crazy and is running everywhere jumping on us, acting like a different dog from before. Then on walks, completely different he would tug, pull and bite on the leash, and every little thing he went crazy for. 3 days into having him we had found out that Arian already left, we were stuck with him.
Although we got “stuck” with Charly I wouldn't trade him for the world. Charly has taught me patience and to care for someone other than myself. Charly is there to comfort, a cuddle and although he doesn't talk back I can always talk to him about anything.