The Purchase of Presley

The start of my 25th year sparked many changes in my life; some might call it a “twenty-something crisis”. Thankfully, my birth year coincides with the calendar year so the events of the first few weeks are easy to remember.

Two days after I rang in the New Year, I started a new job. I left a terrible job situation as a Healthcare Recruiter/Staffing Coordinator for what I thought was much greener pastures as an HR Administrator; something more in my field, using what I will be paying off for the next 50 years. I had spent the last 3 weeks of my first job searching the Internet for teacup Maltese puppies. I know what you’re thinking, “they are paying you”. You know what I say to that, “not enough”. I found some amazingly cute puppies, all girls, big black eyes, pocket size; I could go on and on. I had discussed the possibility of purchasing a dog with my mom, who quickly convinced me that I shouldn’t. I agreed that I was years away from that decision.

The third weekend in January, I turned 25. YIKES! I more or less had a mental breakdown. Here was my “logic”. I just turned 25 – twenty-five; that means that half of my twenties were over - only a memory. The other half, well that meant I was almost THIRTY. That freaked me out. I remember standing in my bathroom, looking the mirror, thinking, “you are almost thirty”. I took that thought with me for the rest of the day. Every spare minute of that day, I thought, “you are almost thirty”.

The following weekend, after a week of thinking, “you are almost thirty”, I went to Starbucks for my usually cup o’ Joe and picked up the Baltimore Sun. I really just wanted to check the “for sale” ads for puppies. Of course, I found one very interesting. “Shih Tzu Puppies 4 Sale”. I looked at my roommate, read the ad aloud, she called the phone number, while I grabbed the keys and Gigi. The lady who placed the ad said that she had already spoken to someone who was coming down that same day to get one of the females. “You know what,” she said, “first come, first serve”. Before we knew it, we were heading to the bank to withdraw some cash. Of course, animals are a cash only purchase.

We drove the 1+ distance to the address the lady had given us. We were supposed to call her when we were about 20 minutes away, but due to excitement, we both forgot. When we finally called she told us she actually had two females so we could have out pick. She also said that one of the females was red; I almost feel over with excitement. A female, red Shih Tzu puppy, what had I done to deserve this? That was the exact dog I had pictured in my head.

We followed the directions to the lady’s house; YIKES. We walked in the house that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in thirty years and the Christmas decorations that were still up, looked like they were from the thirties. She showed us to the kitchen, were the puppies were. She had a huge pen like thing set up in the middle of her kitchen; they were all in there. All but one were from the same litter. The “odd girl out” was sitting up against the wall of the pen while the others were running in circles around the pen. She tried to point to the other female, but she was running so fast, we had a hard time figuring out which one she was talking about. I picked up the “odd girl out”, but quickly put her back down; just didn’t feel the connection. I attempted to grab the other girl who was still playing with her brothers, it took me a few tries; she kept slipping through my fingers. Finally, I picked her up, looked at her face with her tongue hanging out and her stinky breath, and said, with 100% confidence, “I’ll take this one”. A few minutes later, we were introducing her to Gigi. About 15 minutes later, my roommate looked at me and said, “what are you going to name her?” “Presley,” I responded with confidence.

The following weekend, we packed up my Jeep with myself, my roommate and our now two dogs and headed back to NJ to help my family move from their house on the island to their new house on the mainland. They were leaving behind over 30 years of memories, so I figured I would come home and help. I didn’t exactly tell my mother that I was bringing home my newest bundle of joy! We met my mom at the new house so she could meet my roommate for the first time. There I was, standing in the empty dining room with baby Presley in my arms when my mom walked in and caught a quick glimpse. “Amanda, what a big responsibility.” She had nothing else to say about Presley, except “yes, she’s cute, but what a big responsibility”.

Here we are three years later. Not such a big responsibility!