The paws that saved me

When you’re born and raised in a third world country, you start believing there’s some sort of rule or something, like for example “YOU HAVE TO GET THE HOUSE FULL OF PETS” nobody really knows where they come from, some are found in the streets and some just kind of show up.

So as natural as it can be, I grew up having pets all over the house: cats, dogs, rabbits, chickens and fish. Lots of fish. They all had a really special place in my heart, and a really special place in the backyard for their grave. But that was when I was living with my mom, once I moved in with my dad we didn’t have all these animals running around. We actually didn’t have pets at all until one day, my dad decided to buy a rabbit for us. We named her bubbles in honor of the power puff girls.

We had her for about a year, but one day my stepmoms best friend came over and talked to us about how she didn’t have time for her Siberian husky named Kiara who she had recently bought, so my parents decided to trade pets. We gave her the rabbit, who was going to be happier in an open field with all the grass she could eat, and we we took the Siberian which was a better pet to have as a kid, rabbits don’t do much to be honest.

So just like that in the blink of an eye, Kiara became our childhood pet, she was the family dog. We all cared for her and honestly, how couldn’t we? We were a big family and we were kids with all the energy in the world. She had three litters throughout her life and was an amazing mom. I can say I was growing up at the same time she was, such a loyal and obedient dog. But I can’t say much about her since when you’re a kid you really don’t know the responsibilities of having a dog (buying them food, toys and taking them to vet appointments) and you don’t get to choose how to train her. For example, my dad is a firm believer that dogs have to sleep outside on the patio, which in tropical weather is not that bad but I didn’t get to sleep with her. So it changes the experience you may have when your parents dictate what’s going to happen.

But after 12 wonderful years of peace and happiness she peacefully passed away; the event left my heart broken. I cried for weeks because I just couldn’t bare the idea of not playing with her or having her as a companion. She was part of our family, so as is expected I had a big hole in my heart and I swore I wouldn’t have dogs in my life ever again.

As the years passed by, I grew up and moved out. Once I was making my own money and making my own decisions. I started having this weird urge of wanting a dog, but this time all on my own, a pet that was only going to be mine, and I was going to be his or her owner. But no matter how much I wanted it, I just couldn’t get the strength to go to the pound and adopt one, I knew the experience would kill me seeing all those dogs in cages... it was something I wasn’t able to do on my own at that time.

But the universe has the best ways of making your wishes come true. Everything happens at the time it’s supposed to happen. One day one of my friends at work called me saying he had just found a stray female dog in a junk yard with a litter of puppies and he asked if I wanted one of the puppies. They were planning on rescuing all of them but that day, they were only able to save two of them since the mom was aggressive; they came back the next day but she was gone by the time they got there.

I was debating adopting this dog and after some time I finally grabbed my car and drove to see the puppies. Once I got there it was only one puppy since my friend had picked the other one. That led me to meet this little one, 6 inches tall, probably three month old brindle puppy with her dreamy watery brown eyes, looking lost and hopeless. I immediately fell in love and had to rescue her. We clicked as soon as she saw me, it was like if the sky had opened and was giving me a gift from heaven. I can swear I almost heard her say “take me with you” .

I took her home with me, on the way home she was so scared and tiny on the passenger seat that somehow, she managed to sneak her way over to my seat. She placed her little self between the seat and my back, and right there in that spot she fell asleep and stopped shaking. I understood that I was her mom now. On my way home I bought her plates, toys, a leash and some food.

The first day with her, she was terrified in my apartment and slept under the couch. The second day however, she was running around and actually slept with me on the bed. She kept me warm and I had an instant fear of crushing her. I wasn’t able to sleep much but just watching her be at peace made me so happy. It was on the third day that I decided to name her “Rahbyn” like Robin Hood, just spelled differently.

She was a smart puppy but I discovered in no time that she had terrible separation anxiety. She couldn’t be left alone in the house (it got to a point where she was biting the walls of the apartment due to her feeling abandoned) so I had to hire a personal trainer to help me. I didn’t want to have to give her away because of the destruction so with the help of a professional I got to understand her language and learned how to read her needs and wants.

She was so easy to train, she learned how to stay, sit, come, lay down, go to bed, jump, up, sit up pretty, and potty in no time. I use to practice daily because it was so fun and fulfilling for both of us and she was also training me at the same time. I had to learn to be responsible and I had to create a schedule in my head between my job and my social life that worked for her as well; I had to feed her at a certain time, had to take her potty at a certain time and had to come home every night to sleep with her. She fulfilled that hole that Kiara’s death had left in me and I felt I was complete once again.

With time she stopped biting the walls and couches and her separation anxiety got better but it was still there. She was still skiddish around new people and loud noises. I was taking her to parks and beaches constantly so she could get use to it but nothing was helping her to be trusting of people. So after a year of sharing each other’s company I thought she needed a brother or a sister to play with daily and keep her company when I wasn’t home.

It was then when I decided to take another leap. I gathered strength and took Rahbyn to the humane society so she could pickher brother or sister. When we arrived the thing I was most afraid of happened. I saw all kinds of dogs in cages, barking and some crying. Then without thinking about it I started crying when I got near a golden retriever who in its adoption paper said it had been surrendered. The dog was eight years old. I couldn’t stop my tears from falling down like waterfalls, I couldn’t believe people would surrender their dog like that. Rahbyn for me was like a daughter, my ride or die, my little universe. I understood her needs and I loved her. Experiencing this was overwhelming but I kept it together and kept walking through the big halls of sadness.

And there it was, we passed by a room with a big window so you could see the dog inside; I saw a little, buff, brown and white, crazy dog running around in circles inside his room, like if he was on drugs and couldn’t stop. Hewas hyped. Something about him just called my name so I told the lady I wanted to see him. She asked me with a smirk if I was sure. I insisted and couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to introduce me to him. She kept telling me the dog was crazy, he hadn’t attacked anybody but he was hyper active, that he was going to jump on me and all sorts of things so I said I already have a crazy dog and I think I want to meet him.

In Miami there is a law against Pitbulls, and without knowing it was a pitbull, since I had never seen one in real life and only heard terrible things about them, I went inside the room and “echo”, as they had named him at the shelter, was so impatient and not at all in peace that he didn’t even acknowledge my presence. He just kept running around the room. I tried to touch him and he smelled me for a second, then kept on his business. So I asked the lady to take him out to the patio so he could meet Rahbyn and we went to the patio. Rahbyn fell in love with him almost immediately, she was trying hard to play with him the whole time and he was just so busy running around he didn’t have a reaction.

And it was then when I knew that he was the one, he was going to be Rahbyns new brother. So I adopted him and because my favorite movie of all times is “The lion king” and “echo” reminded me of that movie, I decided to name him “Simba”

When I adopted him the lady told me his story. They had found him near a pit ring where they force Pitbulls to fight each other for money. They had found him running outside the place as if he had escaped. They said he was bleeding and that he was overly excited and because I was in Miami when I got him they had to say in his paperwork that he was an American bulldog mix.

I took him home a little bit scared since they had told me so many negative stories about Pitbulls, how they are aggressive and bite people; so I started gathering information from the internet about Pitbulls and what to do. I was surprise when I learned that back in the 1800’s they were actually used as nanny’s for the babies because of their loyalty and protection towards little creatures; it was not until WWI that they started using them as fighting dogs due to their grip and the fact that they can lose their smell at any given moment through their lives. I also learned they need at least 3 hours of exercise daily, because they are hyper active dogs.

The first day I brought him home he had the smell of a deceased animal so I wanted to give him a bath and let me just say, it was a whole new challenge. Simba was not trusting of humans, I couldn’t go near his ears, his paws or his tail, I had to earn his trust little by little and there I was thinking that I knew how to train a dog and that I knew everything about dogs. God how wrong was I.

Simba became a whole new challenge and like any dog trainer will tell you every dog is different and they learn differently so I had to do things different with him. He was not only special due to his fighting past but he was also a pitbull. I had to learn his language the same way I learned Rahbyns. At the beginning I was scared he might kill Rahbyn if left them alone so the first couple of days were tense and stressful for me, but as I started communicating with him I started noticing that he was eager to please me as if he had to earn my affection.

So I started training him, which due to his pleasing nature was easier than I thought. He was really gentle with Rahbyn when they would play and had no problems when left alone. With time he also allowed me to touch and clean his ears and paws which made me happy. It was like if his walls were coming down and he was inviting me into his world.

Simba became so close to me so fast. He would go with me to the bathroom just to sit there and stare at me. He would cuddle me every time I would lay down, and go under the blankets to be close to me. I was actually impressed and shocked by his behavior, he was the sweetest thing ever. The horrible things they say about his breed and having him as a pet were two opposite stories. He was such a sweet traumatized boy that all he wanted was to be loved. He wanted to be a good boy so I could praise him and give him love and affection. It was such that one day I caught him peeing inside the house, so as I had learned with Rahbyns trainer I went and got a magazine and rolled it to hit him in the butt, but as soon as he heard me saying his name out loud he froze. It was as if he couldn’t move. He saw me coming with the magazine and started shaking and crying uncontrollably while peeing himself as if I was about to beat him to death.

It broke my heart into tiny pieces seeing how mistreated he had been his first year in this world. The shock was such that I had to drop the magazine and hold him down in my arms telling him constantly that he was ok, that I was there to protect him. I had to change my methods with him, I couldn’t train him the same way I had trained Rahbyn, and with time I earned his full trust. All I can say about owning a pitbull is that rumors about them aren’t real, they are one of the most loyal, sweet and protective breeds out there. After I learned how to communicate with simba, life became a daily blessing.

They have given me something I never thought I needed which is the sense of belonging. They have been there through my hells and through my heavens, they teach me patience every single day. it’s like they have gifted me a purpose in life greater than the one I thought I wanted for myself and the best of all is, they show me how unconditional love can actually be. Because of them I have bettered myself and my life. They’ve traveled the United States from end to end with me without complaints. They have wiped down my tears with their kind hearts and the moment I lost everything they gave me the strength I needed to stand up and keep fighting. They are not just dogs they are my family, my babies, my whole world. Everybody thinks I saved them but the truth is that they saved me five years ago and everyday since.