Eight years ago, when I met my dog, Spirit, for the first time, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight.
It had just been a couple of months since my family’s beloved German Shepherd, Shania — who will forever be remembered for sunbathing on a pool float for hours a day during the summer months — had to be put down after her failing back and hips left her barely able to walk.
Losing that dog after growing up with her for 12 years was a sadness that was unlike anything I had ever dealt with at the time, and it was not something that I was in a hurry to experience again.
Although I had pushed my parents to get another dog to try to fill that void, I soon learned that it wasn’t so easy to move on.
One day, my father came home with a newspaper clipping with an ad for a breeder in New York, who was selling a litter of 8-week-old German Shepherd puppies.
I was immediately excited and started lobbying for us to make the trip. My efforts were ultimately successful and after an hour-long car ride, my parents and I were next faced with the decision of which puppy to pick.
My mother and I both chose a separate puppy to bond with — I favored the quiet, well-behaved one and my mom liked the one that looked like our previous dog — but ultimately it was my father who got his way.
And he chose the little terror of the group.
While my mother and I watched this little monster work with her equally troublesome sister to harass the older dogs who were in cages during the entire visit, my father decided that she was the “cool dog” he wanted to take home.
It took a couple of days to come up with a name, but the dog’s spirited personality, which was marked by a blatant disregard for the rules, eventually resulted in the name my mother chose: Spirit.
At the time, I was working my first newspaper job out of college, a small weekly publication that lacked a newsroom, meaning most of my work was done at home or out of coffee shops.
However, Spirit did not have any respect for my daily workload. She would tear apart my notes, sit on my laptop when I was trying to write, and mess up my bed and room if that was where I was working.
And anyone who has had a German Shepherd puppy knows they are going to be the victim of their new pet’s attacks for the first few months. Spirit was no different, and her teeth seemed to get sharper by the day.
At one point, in exasperation, when we were outside one day, my mother asked me why Spirit did not seem to like her, since she would not stop the biting.
But as time went on, we all grew to love Spirit, and eventually stopped feeling sad over Shania. She’s the dog who has been there for me throughout the good and bad times over the years — her spirited personality meant she could bring joy to any bad situation.
Spirit has always been active, and as she got older, she always had the energy of a much younger dog. She would run outside for hours, swim in the summer months, play in the snow in the winter, and would never let anyone get through a television show or meal without dropping the ball for an endless game of fetch inside the house.
That’s why it’s been so heartbreaking to watch her in pain lately. A couple of months ago, she ran down some stairs to chase a ball that was thrown in my parents’ backyard and tore her ACL. I wasn’t there at the time — I live in a different state.
Since then, she has not been able to walk without having to sit down right after and weeks of rest has not resulted in much improvement in her condition. Her veterinarian has recommended surgery, saying that if she does not get it surgically fixed, she will have arthritis within a year.
As it’s an expensive surgery, my parents have been waiting to see if she was able to heal on her own first, and sought out a second opinion.
Unfortunately, my once-dynamic puppy has been relegated to the couch for most of the summer, and during my two visits back home in July, I found myself yearning for the days that I felt exasperation for repeatedly having to throw her ball while I was trying to watch a movie or Yankees game.
I’d give anything to have that time back.
It’s easy for us to assume that we have all the time in the world, but for far too many of us, this year has shown that things can change in an instant. In my case, I thought I had years left with Spirit, and maybe I still do.
But for however long that ends up being, I’m going to spend that time trying to provide her with some of the joy she’s brought me over the years.
