Emotionally Detached or Unemotionally Attached?

It was on March 18 of this year that I wrote about Jack and Jaden Taylor of Derby. The nine-year-old twins had celebrated their birthdays by asking for monetary gifts that they could in turn donate to the Humane Society.

It was last week that my daughter turned nine-years-old and inspired by the Taylor twins, did exactly the same thing for the local SPCA. She was thrilled to have collected $150 in cash donations to spend on cat and dog treats, food and toys. My son, calculator in hand, tallied the items to make sure she did not spend over her allotted amount. It was like Christmas in August.

It was on June 13 that I promised my daughter that if she could complete a triathlon I would let her foster a puppy from the SPCA.

It was on August 15 that we brought a three-month-old Jack Russell terrier mix home to foster for a few weeks. The pup has demodex mites; we shall attempt to cure her of the pesky bugs so that she will be adoptable. This is what the email from the SPCA said after we had already agreed to take her, “This poor little girl has been at the shelter for two months and has had no human socialization at all and the only other K9 socialization she has had was with her two littermates. So you have your work cut out, not only medically treating her for the demodex but teaching her human socialization skills.”

“Fantastic,” I thought to myself, “What have I gotten myself and my family into? Why do you love animals so much Aubree? Couldn’t you of just asked for a Nintendo DS or an American Girl doll as a reward?”

However, when I got ‘no name’ home I was pleasantly surprised. I haven’t heard her bark and she gets along great with our six-year-old Golden Shepherd. That’s a Golden Retriever/German Shepherd mix in case you haven’t heard. Mixed breeds are all the rage. Puggles (Pug/Beagle), Labradoodles (Lab/Poodle), Goldendoodles (Golden Retriever/Poodle), Chugs (Chihuahua/Pug) Labaraners (Lab/ Weimaraner), Chiweiners (Chihuahua/Daschund) and the list goes on and on. Breeders are charging hundreds of dollars for these mixed breeds.

We were also given the task of naming the puppy. I now have a new appreciation for Adam (of the Bible) and his chore of naming the thousands upon thousands of animals on the planet. Aubree chose to name her Bella, meaning beautiful in Spanish. Bella has been a nice addition thus far.

The challenge will be fostering Bella while remaining ‘emotionally detached' or should I say 'unemotionally attached?’

Word of the Week: Each week I add a word that I have come across in my reading for which I did not know the definition. After looking it up I try to use it in my future columns. Last week’s word was steamer, something propelled or operated by steam, as a steamship.”