Dog Adoption Research Paper

“To never know the love of a dog is to miss the best thing life has to give.” –Anonymous I find warmth and comfort in animals, particularly dogs. In July 2011, my family decided to adopt another dog into our family. Our other dog, Bella, was lonely and needed a companion. We discovered a place in Battle Creek that had puppies available for adoption. Throughout the drive there, I was not nervous or anxious as one may expect. I was thrilled and could not wait for what was to come. We never had a puppy in our family before, only dogs of nine months or older. I discerned it would be a challenge and it would take hard work to train him or her.
After the elongated drive to Battle Creek, my parents, my older brother, Zack, and I were introduced

to a middle-aged woman named Sue. She had a kind eyes and a welcoming smile. We strolled over to the pen filled with Golden Retrievers, there had to have been at least ten of them. Each one had a different colored collar on his or her neck, I presumed this was to tell them apart. Sue pulled a boy in a blue collar out and handed him to Zack and she handed another boy in a yellow collar to my dad. She then looked at me and placed a third boy with darker fur and a white collar into my arms. He was the size of a watermelon. The sweet smell of puppy breath filled my nose as he licked my face. He began to squirm and I tried to console him but my efforts failed and he fell from my arms to the ground.
“Arrrff.” His tiny puppy voice squealed.
My face filled with fear as I hoped he was all right.
Sue smiled briefly and said, “It’s okay, puppies don’t break.”
I smiled back with a relieved face and then sat on the ground to play with White Collar. He noticeably had more energy than the other puppies and I could tell he would be a handful but since he was first placed in my arms my mind had been made up. Of course Zack had liked Blue Collar more than White Collar and my dad enjoyed Yellow Collar. The four of us sat down with the three puppies to see how they interacted with us. Blue Collar kept trying to run away from us to go play in the grass. Yellow Collar decided to take a nap but White Collar played with all of us, play biting, licking, and jumping. Sue figured it would be a good idea for White Collar to go to a home with four people to watch over him because he was definitely bound to be a little trouble maker. Sooner or later, I had won over the rest of my family with my decision.
“You’re sure he’s the one you want?” My dad asked.
“Positive.” I replied. “Just look at that face,” I said in a baby voice and then gestured to White Collar.
My dad grinned and we made the finalizations for his adoption. We also planned a day to come pick him up. The time between the day we adopted him and the day we got to pick him up was filled with anticipation and argument over what his name should be. My dad being a police officer, and Zack being a police officer in training, they threw out the name “Taser.” I agreed it would be perfect for the cute little bundle of energy. Additionally, my mom proposed we spice up the name by spelling it with a Z instead of an S. To this day, my not-so-little Tazer is the first to greet me when I return home and the last to leave my side if I am sick or upset.