Meta-Story

    Sitting at the dinner table and eating pizza allowed me to remember the night I got my dog, Josie. My dad, sister and I drove to Pontiac, IL to pick out a new Golden Retriever puppy from a breeder my dad had contacted earlier. Looking back on the drive, I realize that I had been hoping that we would leave with a new puppy, not realizing that you don’t drive for 4 hours in a car with two annoying kids, to NOT end up getting a puppy. However, my dad almost went through a painful car ride for nothing. When we arrived at the home of the breeder, nobody was home. We could hear the dogs barking, which only got me excited, and my dad tried calling the breeder but she didn’t pick up her phone. It was about 6 p.m. at the time, so we were hungry, and we decided to get something to eat while we waited. The only problem was, we were in the middle of nowhere; so the only place we could find was a gas station that sold homemade pizza. At the time, I was so hungry that pizza from a GAS STATION sounded delicious, but to our luck, they were all out of pizza. Instead, we had to “settle” for cheese and crackers.

After our gourmet dinner, the breeder called my dad, and told him that she was in Chicago visiting her mother. “I told her we were coming today!” my dad said. “Why would she go to Chicago and not tell us?” At the time I started to think that we weren’t going to leave Pontiac with a puppy, but now I know that my dad would have probably slept at the gas station until the breeder came back from Chicago. We had been searching for a new dog for 6 months, and my dad was tired of us nagging him to get one; he wasn't going to lose his last opportunity of shutting my sister and me up. Luckily, he didn't lose his opportunity because the husband of the breeder came home from work (later than usual) and allowed us to look at the puppies.

Looking at my dog, I remember the way she smelled when I first picked her up. Sometimes I smell my her to see if she if she still smells of cedar. Sadly, she smells like she rolled in throw-up. When we were driving home, Josie got so car sick, that she threw up everywhere, my lap being one of those places.

My sister was the one who chose Josie, although I'm currently the dog's favorite master. When she picked up Josie, all the dog did was snuggle with her. Even now my dog is snuggling with me. "I love this one!" is what my sister said. We all held her and agreed that she was the cuddliest, most loving of all the puppies (she was also the runt). After we chose our dog, we started to drive home. We had this big van that had removable seats. Two of the seats were removed so there was a big open space for Josie to crawl around in. However, she didn't crawl, she squeezed under the seat. She is currently squeezing herself under my parents bed. The ride home was the shortest ride of my life because I had my amazing new puppy. Without Josie, I wouldn't have anyone to curl up with while watching "The Goldbergs".