On a hot June afternoon in 1989, the summer between my Junior and Senior year of high school, my little sister somehow convinced my parents that I needed a dog for my seventeenth birthday. I am not sure why she was working this idea so hard when my birthday was still five weeks away. I had not ever been given a dog for a gift, I was not some sort of dog fanatic, I wasn't asking for a puppy.
I cannot say I understand what motivated her to begin this crusade on my behalf, but she is nothing if not persistent. You don't know the number of dogs that have joined my family as a result of my sister's fierce passion and perseverance.
You don't know, because I can't tell you. It is that many.
The guy I had been dating for almost two years had a Samoyed. Even though we didn't herd reindeer, or even regular deer, my sister begged my parents for the same breed.
My sister is the youngest and we know now that youngest children have magical super powers. The youngest can make parents do things those same parents would otherwise label as utter nonsense.
Lydia suggests things and confetti falls from the sky in celebration of her wonderful ideas. Ask our oldest, Britt, this was not her childhood experience.
My little sister Tina, at age 14, knew that she had a window of opportunity. She broke their will and got my parents to see a Samoyed puppy right away, even though it was not time to give me a gift.
When Tina is involved, seeing a Samoyed puppy is buying a Samoyed puppy; and that is exactly what happened.
On that particular Saturday in June, I was with my boyfriend. I was 16 and he was 18. We both had July birthdays, so we were nearing the wiser older ages of 17 and 19.
Saturday 24 June 1989
The US president was George H. W. Bush (Republican). Famous people born on this day include Teklemariam Medhin . In that special week of June people in US were listening to Satisfied by Richard Marx.
{Go ahead and google Teklemariam Medhin. I don't know him. He's not that famous.}
It turns out that teenagers without fully developed frontal lobes make choices and decisions that are totally and completely hormone driven.
This is how, on the same day my boyfriend and I lost our virginity (and ALSO MANAGED TO make a baby), I also received a Samoyed puppy.
Now you may be wondering what the point of this story is, and why I chose to share it.
Me too.
That puppy was named Angel. She was not that.
My family has laughing fits remembering the winters of 1989 to 1995.
The most vivid Angel memories involve my Dad running through deep snow in his rose colored bathrobe trying to catch that defiant dog and get her to come back in the house.
The baby came 40 weeks later.
She was named Brittany.
She is a dog lover.
