Friday, January 16, 2009

"Penny Saver" Saves the Day (again)... aka How We Got Lucy

When Stef, Tihua, Karen and I moved off-campus our Junior year at UCSD, we, as typical college students, acquired by all means an assortment of random, mismatched, yet functional, furniture. Some of our better finds was the soft sage green love seat I got for free off craigslist (was it craigslist? did they even have craigslist back then?), N64 and PS2 consoles complete with dozens of games from Caleb, and our solid oak dining table complete with leaf insert and 6 matching chairs. Perfect condition for $60. $60! Stef actually found the deal while flipping through our local copy of Penny Saver magazine and bought it off the old man right away. That dining table served us VERY well for many, many years to come, hosting dinners, game nights, study sessions, etc, and was the centerpiece upon which many great memories were made.

Since then, I have never overlooked a copy of Penny Saver whenever it arrives in the mailbox. Especially when I'm on the look-out for something... like a puppy!

Wayne and I have been talking about getting a dog for a little while now and have visited shelters and even put ourselves on the puppy waitlist. I thought it would be a couple of months, at least, before we would welcome a rolly polly puppy into our home, plenty of time to prepare and ready ourselves for this ginormous committment... except, that on Wednesday morning, I dutifully scoured our most recent Penny Saver, and lo and behold, there was an ad for "13 adorable puppies. $100 each." I called right away, and when I found out they were Golden Retriever/ Chow Chow mixes (gotta love those Chow Chow mixes :) ), I got sooooo excited. I've been saying that the perfect dog would be another Indee. That very night, Wayne, Emily, and I went to look at the puppies and... well, needless to say, we brought one home!

So Lucy was quite unexpected. We didn't even have any puppy supplies! That night, she slept on a towel and it wasn't until the next morning that I even had the chance to get her any food. That night, I actually had trouble sleeping, not only because I was tending to her, but because I was thinking about the huge responsibility we had just taken on, the commitment we had just made, not to mention the financial burden... my mind was busy making mental lists of what we would need to do and obtain--supplies, vaccinations, a reliable vet, puppy classes... where will she go when we go out of town? What are we going to do when I get a job?

I'm still a little nervous, but Wayne assures me we'll be okay. Haha, it really feels like we got a baby, except I know Lucy is MUCH less demanding. I suppose this is good training for parenthood one day. Except, I probably won't be consulting the Penny Saver at that time.

No comments: