Paisley Bell
Today is Paisley Day in our house!
Today is the day that we got our pup Paisley. Doug had always wanted a Cockapoo so when we heard about her, it seemed like kismet. The report from the family that was giving her away wasn’t too happy though. They had a bunch of kiddos and she had been ‘too much to handle’ especially given that she was throwing up on a frequent basis.
All of this definitely gave us pause and brought out a lot of questions the main one being: we both work and are often gone during the day…is that fair to a dog who is potentially sick? At the time, our condo was in a type of high rise apartment building so we wrestled with whether or not our neighborhood had enough dog parks and places to run to keep her entertained.
After a lot of discussion, we decided the need for her to have a home was more important. I remember being in tears to Doug one night saying, “she needs to be adopted”. After seeing a photo of her it was game over for both of us.
So, 6 years ago today, my dad drove this little gal down to Chicago for us. He said that she was quite nervous on the trip. Not surprising considering she had been taken from a home she knew, put in a car with a stranger, and embarked on a 2.5 hour road trip. When we first met her it was love at first site. She was extremely loving and friendly. She let me wrap her up in a blanket and she just rested on our floor I’m sure exhausted from her frazzling trip.
We approached her cautiously wanting to make sure that we didn’t just strip her of the life she knew while introducing some needed changes as well. New dog food was the top priority. She had been eating mainly wet food which I think was a factor for her upset tummy/throwing up. We thought we would slowly wean her off this food, but she loved the dry food we had gotten her so much she just switched cold turkey. No sickness because she rarely throws up.
Change #2? Her toys. We found that she didn’t like hard plastic toys at all but did LOVE plushy, soft animals. She was so sweet to them…she would carefully bring them around the house, chase them down, and take little snoozes with them. A tiny bunny that we affectionately coined ‘her baby’ remains in her collection to this day.
Another big change was her cage. We were told that she slept in this cage at night time. For the first few nights we put her in there as we thought it might be a bit of security blanket for her. In reality, it turned out to be the opposite. I woke up in the middle of the night to find her sitting up, staring at us in bed, and softly whimpering. Another night I woke up to find her asleep but trying to stretch out…her cage was too small so she had her legs up on either side of the cage in an attempt to get cozy. Heart officially shattered, that was the last night she slept in her cage. Now that I know how she likes to sleep (completely sprawled out) it makes me so sad that she was stuck in the ill-fitting cage for so many nights.
We quickly fell into a routine. She loved sitting on our deck watching cars go by and running up and down the hallways of our building. Some new food, new toys, and no more cage later, she was a new lady. She is the most loving, sweet natured pup. Her favorites include cucumbers, boat rides, down comforters, pink tennis balls, and her menagerie of plush animal friends.
For the whole crazy way that it came about, we couldn’t be more grateful that she is part of our family.
Here’s to you little Pais. You bring us so much joy.
Sincerely,
Ashley