The Family Dog by A.B.

Yellow, my name is Alana, and I am going to be telling you about getting my first boy dog Onyx. Well, it is the whole family's dog, but I mostly take care of him, so my mom calls him my dog. It all started when we were going around town; we were on bridge. I was in the front seat and my brother, Zion, and sister, Jhaniah were in the back. It was partly cloudy and looked as if it was going to rain later that day. You know what, now that I think of it, I had a boy dog of my own when I was younger, and he was a brown Chihuahua. What I really mean is my first boy dog in a long time or my first boy dog with my siblings. We just got done doing some errands when my mom saw the adoption center and she said, “You guys want to go look at animals?”

And of course, we all said “yes.” My siblings and I were extremely excited to get to see all the animals. We went around to the dogs first, since that is the animal, we all really wanted.

My mom wanted a dog that was well. she said, “we should get a dog that is young and is easier to train,” or something like that, but I remembered feeling some type of way, almost annoyed about it since all animals need a home, not just puppies.

But I just nodded, rolled my eyes slightly, and kept looking at all the cute dogs. At one point, as we were walking, I was hoping that there would be a husky here, but then realized there probably was not one and started to hope for a Pit or a Bully.

“look at that one” my sister said there was this cute big white fluffy dog, and oh my was he adorable. “he’s pretty” was all I could say “ya” my brother said in agreement. But my mom said, “he is three years old” and for my mom he was out of the window just because if his age. I mean has not anyone ever told her age is just a number. Too bad too because he was super cute.

But we kept looking, and then we saw this beautiful black and white pit. he was so cute, and when I saw him, I knew I wanted that dog, and my Mom wanted some time with the dog as well since we were all in agreement.

With that, my mom asked, “can we see that dog,” to one of the workers, and Max, the dog we wanted, had a waiting list of people who wanted him, so, as we were waiting for our turn.

As we waited, we kept looking around until we saw a beautiful, I think, purebred light-brown and white pit. She was so beautiful, yet she looked calm while she was in her cage.

“Can we look at her” I asked my mom “yes, she is really pretty” as I looked closer, when I realized she looked like our old dog Belle. When a worker came by and told us we could see her and started to walk us to a room, and as we walked by, we saw a family playing with Max. I hoped that they did not want the dog because that is the dog that I really want.

“There with our dog” said mom and all I could do was agree. You know how they say love at first sight well it was like that, but Max is a dog. Yet I was still excited to see that other pit who’s name I have forgotten. As we were waled in a medium side room, we set waiting to see the girl pit. As she got her she was certainly playful, she liked playing with the toys. We played games with her and she was an extremely sweet dog.

My mom wanted to try and see if the dog could sit down, she started with the command “sit” and when that did not work, she tried and slightly push on her butt so that she would go down. Eventually she set but only for like two seconds and then was up playing again.

My mom said, “we need a dog that can sit down and chill out” and I agreed we like playing around with dogs, but also would like to chill out. So that dog just was not the right fit for our home. Even though she was cute she just was not the right fix, I felt bad though but at the same time we need a dog that will match us, one that can calm down and relax.

With that my mom got the worker and he asked, “would you still like to see the other dog?”

We all obviously said “yes” but Zion was the most excited jumping around. As the other dog came in, he had his tail in-between his legs and was shaking like a scared pup, well that is what he was, so it made since.

My mom called him over and walked over awfully slow she first looked to see if he would take a toy and when he did. My siblings and I started to play with the little pup until he got tired and kind of just plopped down. He was so calm just the dog we were looking for, but he was also playful.

My mom wanted to see one last thing and that was if he could sit. So, she said “sit” and he did we played with him for a while giving him treats and holding him until one of the workers had come back.

My mom asked if we wanted the dog. We all said yes, and I am sure as you can imagine the adoption process took forever well actually about three hours. From paperwork to just waiting for Max to be ready, until finally it was time for us to pick out Maxs new name and make sure everything they had was correct. We got to change his name from Max to Onyx. The worker that was helping us with this had lovely stories about Onyx and how much they all adored him. It was also noticeably clear that the worker was incredibly happy that someone had adopted Max which is now Onyx.

The worker asked us if we wanted to grab a few things from the small gift store for the dog, and since we were not exactly expecting to get a dog we went inside. The first thing we looked at was a collar.

My siter wanted to get him this purple one, while my brother was too busy looking at treats.

By the end we found this beautiful green I think collar that would look absolutely ravishing on Onyx. Giving him a little color to his black and white fur. Then we started to look for small treats and about two toys. After that we of course had to get a bed and a cage. Oh, and we cannot forget a leash and dog wash. After we got all of that we went up to the counter to get his name engrave on his tag and our information and to also pay for all the stuff we had gotten.

My mom had also decided to get a small bag of the food at the animal shelter so that we can mix his food with a better brand that will help him grow and all that good stuff. As we were checking out a lady with her dog came in and he or she was exceedingly small and so fluffy.

Then the lady at the store that was checking out our stuff started to talk with mom it felt like forever. I feel like sometime when grown-ups start to talk there conversation last forever. Within no time it was over, and we were finally out of that store.

The lady at the front told us that Onyx was on his way id we wanted to put the bags in the car. And that is what me and my mom did. But we kept his collar and his leash with us. As onyx came out, he looked scared and it got worse when we went outside, he was shaking bad. My mom put him in my lap in the front seat and he stayed shaking in-between my legs, this was his first time in the car for a while.

A few weeks later Onyx finally seemed at home. It took a while to get him, but it was worth it. It just takes a while to get things you want. Of course, we had a little bit of trouble I mean he is a boy, so he marked his territory and since we changed his food, he had been having bad gas. But after a while he was fine. Having a dog is a lot of work from adopting them to introducing then into your home. But after a while everything turned out ok. Well of course there where up and down since Onyx has a small bladder problem.

My mom said you should get a dog that fits you or in this case us. Now he is one years old he has gone to the dog park and made some friends. Got the privilege to be in the living room and chill. And he is learned a few commands.

My rite of passage isn’t exactly getting a dog I guess it sort of about having patience and waiting for things. Getting a dog takes a lot of work and patience you must be patient with the process and your new dog or anything else when you get it. And if I wasn’t patient, I probably would be the one with Onyx and he would have another home or put down. But of course, having a dog is also a rite of passage in its own was way. But this mostly focusses on how I got to make decisions and compromise with getting this dog. So, this is part of my rites of passage.