The World According to Mitch

On Quora, someone asked the question’How did your adopted puppy let you know hey chose you?’ This was my response.

I got a terrible call on Wednesday. My ex-wife told me that Gingit ran into the street, was hit by a car, and died. I was so upset.

That weekend my girlfriend (now ex) and I were at Griffith Park in LA and I was playing with a lot of the dogs. As we sat down for lunch she gave me a list of criteria that any dog she would accept into her house would have to meet. I was not thinking of adopting…it was too soon.

Later that afternoon, we were at an outdoor café when she came in. Sophie walked right up to Liza and started showing love and affection. The hooman explained that she was a foster, and they were looking for a permanent family for her. They had come from way across town, but heard this was a dog friendly café. They had no business in Los Filas, but there was an outdoor café so they came.

If I were choosing a dog, Sophie checked none of my boxes. She was wiry and scraggly, she was small, she was… she. I liked her, but Liza said to me ‘this is the dog we should adopt.’ I tried to talk her out of it. Thank G-d I did not try too hard. Tuesday I had my interview with the adoption agency (Dogs Without Borders in California), and we agreed that I would foster to adopt.

We picked her up Friday after work. Liza was, from the very beginning, doing it for me… she wanted to have a dog on her terms, not full time through good and bad. So after we took her for a walk, Sophie jumped into my car… and she was so nervous because she didn’t know what was going on. This poor dog had spent I don’t know how long alone on the streets, then from rescuer to agency to foster to foster. How could she know that I was her forever hooman? She sat on my front seat with my hand on her for the drive to PetSmart. Liza met us there, and we bought the necessities. That night Liza told her she had to sleep downstairs… and she cried all night.

A few nights later, Liza and her daughter went away for the summer, and Sophie climbed the stairs and jumped into bed with me. She looked at me and said ‘I’m not the doggie you would have chosen… but Gingit chose me for you.’ She snuggled in with me.

Two weeks later we drove to Beverly Hills and finalized the adoption. She got chipped, and I took her for her for her shots and then for a haircut. She looked like a completely different doggie… and one whom I have loved ever since.

Liza and I did not last through Covid. When I told her I had to move out, her first words to me were ‘YOU are taking the dog.’ I am not sure in what universe that was not going to happen.

She (Liza) still wanted to see (now Princess) Sophie… and again on her terms. When I was forced to return to Canada, she (Liza) was angry and mean to me that she could not see HER dog again… but it was always clear to all of us – our friends, and especially to Princess Sophie – that I was her hooman. I always will be.

She chose me because Gingit sent her to me. She melted my heart and I love her more than I ever thought I would. My fiancée loves her and vice versa, and when we move to Texas, PS will be happy to meet her son.

You are right… when adopting a dog, they choose you as much as you choose them. Thank G-d she did!