The Accident

I always joke that Dexter wasn't the dog I wanted, but the dog I needed. This little mutt has a huge personality and we were bound to each other far beyond either of us knew.

I will get back to Dexter but first let me introduce my first little baby (huge baby now) Weasley. This orange floof came into my life on Halloween of 2018. I ended up falling absolutely head over heels for this little sleepy lover of a kitten. He came out of his little nap with a big stretch and I picked him up and he immediately purred and did the lil kneading thing. He reeked of cigarettes from being picked up behind a busy bar during Halloween celebrations.

About a year later, I moved out on my own. Anxiously living in a little studio, a few weeks away from graduating from my undergrad with no idea what came next, I found solace in my new cat. My mental health was pretty shaky as school took my soul and the completion of graduation wasn’t certain. I had a significant amount of work to do in the next 6 weeks that would determine the fate of my degree.

My boyfriend was over helping me pull together my final stats project when my mom called explaining that Esteban and Amanda, brand new parents, couldn’t handle Dexter's anxiousness and were thinking about sending him back to the humane society. I was mortified.

I wanted a dog, and my apartment allowed them with the proper paperwork so I had been eyeing up dogs online, but was waiting for graduation so I could be present for my new companion. But I knew, with zero doubt, he was coming to live with me and Weasley.

Dexter and I had become so connected and his little sass brought me so much joy. He was clingy and had a big personality so I understood where my brother and Amanda were coming from as terrified new parents, but I knew what I had to do.

After getting off the phone with my mom and a few glasses of wine in, I immediately called my brother without a sound plan and told him I would take him. You know those moments in life where you know whatever is happening is supposed to happen? This was that. It was like Esteban was just watching Dexter and it was time for him to come home. He came frolicking into mine and Weasley’s life.

They immediately got along. I call them cat-dog like that 90’s cartoon where the dog and cat are connected because they are both orangey and they always lay butt to butt. It makes me giggle and brings me so much joy.

Things were going well. I was saving up for post-graduation rest and job applications. I had my two little chickens, as I like to call them, and graduation was looking good. If you don’t feel the foreshadowing of something horrific about to happen, just imagine the build up of music and lighting in a horror movie.

I left Dexter at my other brother's house to watch while I worked my weekend bartending shifts. I was not even a block or two away when I saw a car pulled to the side of the road and something in my gut told me to go check to see what happened. That’s when I spotted my dad and boyfriend on the side of the road too.

My heart sank.

My dad had pulled Dexter from the wheels of the car. He had gotten out and made it to a busy road. I could feel my heart in my throat. I wanted to vomit. Shaking, we rushed him to the emergency vet. I had to make the difficult decision of putting him down or spending every cent to my name to potentially save him. They didn’t know how good the odds were and expressed there wasn’t much hope. I felt like a failure to my little friend. How could this happen? I decided to pay and hoped they would be able to do what they could to mend my little dude.

It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Though it came with a significant amount of stress, financial pain, and overwhelm, I had come out of the other side. I successfully graduated and cared for Dexter back to health. Weasley barely left our side and with the support of my boyfriend, we became a family.

I found strength in making tough decisions, advocating for my pets health, strategizing finances, and learned to lean on my people. It can be tough in a world that doesn’t always understand the impact of a pet's love or dismisses how overwhelming these types of events can be. But my inner circle of people became stronger and I am forever grateful.

Today, Dexter is as healthy as ever loving every minute of me working from home in our new apartment with my boyfriend. Him and Weasley still cuddle butt to butt bring me laughter and joy.