Joy
Joy is a new addition to my little family – now Micah has a naughty, younger but bigger brother that I must say he doesn’t seem too keen to get to know.
Joy is a stray dog that hung around the trainers’ houses at work. One of the trainers there was kind enough to feed him food, and knowing that he would get regularly fed, he always came back in meal hours – morning, afternoon and dinner.
He was such a scared little thing – I tried approaching him several times and he ran away immediately, despite the food and yummy treats I bought for him. I ended up visiting the trainers’ house everyday just to see how he was doing, and also so he would be familiarized with me.
I really don’t know what made me want to adopt him. When I first saw him I felt this kind of sadness washing over me – he was small, afraid and lonely. He seemed to mistrust strangers immensely – perhaps it was because he had a bad experience with humans before. Any sudden movements would surprise and scared him off.
On fridays, the skills trainers usually went back to their hometown, and I kept thinking about who was going to feed Joy. I was driving home when I thought about this and it was right then I knew that I had to bring him home with me. It was clear that he had lost his mother and nobody was going to take care of him if it weren’t me.
So the following week, I talked to my husband and even showed him a picture of Joy (the skill trainer named him) and he agreed that we should take care of this dog. On Tuesday, I called the nearest petshop and arranged to have Joy picked up, bathed and cleaned from any fleas or ticks that stuck on his skin. In the afternoon, I picked him up and took him home, exactly on February 9th 2012.
A few days after, he joked about how the boys in my life were all born in February, and it dawned on me that he was right – my husband and Micah were both born in February and I brought Joy home in the same month too.
So with the presence of Joy, we begin a new journey that we’re already familiar and yet feel strange at the same time. We knew how to raise a dog now that we have Micah but Joy is a much bigger dog and he has a different character compared to Micah.
One thing I know for sure – Joy is no longer the scared little dog I once knew. On the first day I brought him home, his back was curved, he was nervous and he kept hiding under the table. Now he stand stall, he’s not as skinny as he used to be, and he steals our clothes from the clothes line. That, I take it, is a sign that he loves us, and that is enough for me.
1 comment
so sweety