Pets=Family

           Back in my young days, when I was about 8 years old, e had gotten our first family house pets. Two dogs named Max (boy) and CJ (girl). We had bought them from some strangers in Flagstaff at the park. They were originally getting pre-sold for $150 each but luckily they were the last two left in the box. The lady that was selling them cut us a huge deal; she sold both of them for $75. Where we live on the reservation is out in the middle of nowhere, so my family and I travel to a plethora of places. We still travel for my baby sister appointments, our sporting events (mainly mine), and we travel far to pay for bills, and to get food and house supplies.

My mom decided to buy the dogs, so they can protect our house while we travel. As the years passed by, Max and CJ had gotten bigger and older. We had always kept them locked inside their fence; well other dogs in our housing area would run around into people’s yards. The one time our dogs jump the fence and run around for 15 minutes, we get a notice from the NHA housing basically telling us, “you need to get rid of your dogs, their dangerous and are running in the neighbors yards…if you do not get rid of them you have to move out!” Of course we were mad at the fact they told us to get rid of our dogs; when it was the first time they had gotten out!

We tried to ask our family members if they could take them in and we will still buy their food and take care of them; but they could not. We did not want to take them to the pound and have them get put down, that was just too horrible to do. One of my step father’s co-workers told us they owned a Hogan near by where the dogs could stay at. We took the offer, and took the dogs to their new home. We gave them food, took them on walks, and played with them for about two weeks on their own. The next week they had passed away. It has been about seven years since my family had owned a pet.

From the movie: Marley and Me, a quote: “a person can learn a lot from a dog…” it is very true. My family and I built up a friendship and trust bond with our two dogs. We knew they would always protect us from any harm, and be there for us whenever we need to smile when we were down. We have some fish in our house but the problem is we can not play with them or we will basically kill them. My family and I missed that type of bonding with your animals, so now we are thinking about a dog from a friend of the family!