At my household, the phone never seems to stop ringing, not any day. On the warm sunny morning of December 28th, that phone rang once again early in the morning, but this one phone call was like no other.

“Hello?” I heard my mom say as she picked up the phone. My mom sat there on the couch, talked on the phone for a few minutes and then hung up.
My dad then asked right after, “Who was that calling?”

“That was Happiness is Pets,” my mom answered. “That call said that they got a Shiba Inu puppy in just last night.”
Months ago, we had put our name down on a list for them to call us when they got one in. We decided to go today to check the puppy out, my family and I climbed into the car and drove up to the store. I hadn’t been this anxious for something in a while






***
As I walked up to the door with my family, I got more and more excited. I pushed open the door, and listened to the chime of the bell, as the smells of pet food, and animals hit me in a rushing wind. We looked around the store into each of the glass windows until we found the one labeled ”Shiba Inu.” The puppy lay there with his back up against the glass, and my mom bent down and tapped on the glass with her nails. The puppy woke up and turned his head at us. Immediately after seeing his small adorable face, my mom said,

“We’re getting him.” So we asked one of the women there to take him out of the cage and take him out for us so we can see him. We went into one of the playpens they have there and we closed the door with him in there. The puppy seemed to immediately attach to us, the way he seemed so comfortable with us in the playpen. We all attached to him right away too. We wanted to get him so badly, but this phone call couldn’t have come at a worse time. The next day my Mom was going into the hospital for back surgery. We had thought, buy him now or wait until another one comes. The woman there said they only get one or two in a year. Not wanting to take the chance, we decided to buy him. The thought going through my mind that I would actually get my first dog was amazing. The only other dog my family had was so old; he had died when I was two years old so I never really knew him. We walked around the store picking out the toys for him to play with when we got home. We brought all of the supplies up to the counter; bought the dog and all of the other supplies.

As we walked out of the store, happiness and excitement came over me as if I had just won the Olympics. We climbed once again back into the car to go home. This time with another passenger, deciding on names already, we were passing him around that car. When I was holding him, I knew that this day was one that changed my life forever.