Finally Home-Lessons on Life from a Free-Spirited Dog by Elizabeth Parker

time.
    Initially, I was upset about the lay-off, but I placed some phone calls to contacts I had made throughout the years . Luckily , I was able to land another job with an employer from a previous job. I would need to wait approximately two months for a position to be made available for me , though, so I had some time to relax and actually enjoy my time off.
    Michael and I agreed it would be a good idea to start visiting the puppy stores since I was unemployed and would have ample time to train a puppy during the day. It was a tough decision since we had not even ha d Buddy for ten months, but due to the fact that I love d dogs and had plenty of time , I figured we could make it happen.
    If we had survived Buddy, we could certainly handle another dog. We searched around and found a few viable possibilities. In one store, they advertised a n extremely low price for a golden retriever. We could not wait to meet her , as we assumed it was this cute three -month-old that had been there for a few weeks.
    We asked if we could play with her while we waited to speak to someone. Without actually confirming that this pup was the one for sale, we took her in to the puppy playpen to get acquainted.
    After playing with this pup for a few minutes, another employee came in to the little pen and smiled at us curiously , wondering why we were playing with this particular pup.
    He then asked us if we were ready to sign the adoption papers. Thankfully, we made sure that one was the correct one for sale.
    “Well, we saw the discount price on the window and we would love to take her. She is perfect . ” I think we already had her name picked out and kept talking amongst ourselves.
    He shook his head and politely interrupted. He kind of chuckled, put his hand on his chin , and said, “That is not the one for sale. That one costs full price. Let me get the one that is for sale.”
    With a slight sense of confusion , we just sort of looked at each other and waited patiently for the inexpensive dog.
    After about three minutes, we heard some footsteps coming from the back room, followed by panting, running feet , and rattling chains banging against the side of the wall. In an instant , the employee returned somewhat out of breath, gained his composure , and said , “ T hi s is the dog for sale.”
    There are certain times in a person’s life whe n things just fall into place and start to make sense. This was one of those said times. The price tag on this particular dog was marked down for a very good reason.
    We surmised that the impish dog that was brought in panting and carrying on must have been Buddy’s younger brother. He was jumping all over th e place, barking, stealing toys, and climbing on our laps .
    He displayed the same type of insane, ludicrous behavior that we had grown to know all too well.
    Michael and I looked at each other, glanced at the disheveled employee , and kindly said, “ T hank you, we have changed our mind. We have to go now.”
    I don’t recall who ran out first or whether I pushed Michael or he pushed me, but all I do know is that we immediately ran out of that store as if it had caught on fire. It was that particular episode that forced us to analyze our decision , acknowledging the fact that a new dog could quite conceivably behave just like Buddy.
    We joke d about that experience later , but I can only hope that the pup got adopted into a loving home , as it was easy to see that he was another sweetheart of a dog. I pray the person who was blessed with him had tons of patience and even more understanding.
    A lot of times people buy dogs because they are cute as puppies or they think it would be a nice gift for the kids. They do not take into consideration that these puppies do grow . I f not trained properly when they are young, they develop habits that are often difficult to break, as was the case with Buddy.
    This can lead to many different avenues, but some of the more common ones are that either the grown