The Fur Child

Mosby came into our lives just a little over year ago. We had been in Arizona just a couple of months. My new job was very stressful, and that stress combined with a few other personal things that had been going on had left me feeling lonely and, well, broken. Allison was working at a resort in nearby Scottsdale, which meant her shift work had her on a weird schedule that didn’t match mine at all, so I was literally alone a lot more than ever before in our marriage.

Mosby loves road trips.

Allison and I had been doing some reading and we felt together that a dog may be able to help emotionally with the garbage that I had been going through. We decided right away that we didn’t want a dog directly from a breeder – we wanted to give a home to a dog who needed a new life. We spent a couple of weeks researching breeds that would fit our little family (and our little apartment) and looking at the classifieds to see what was available, but nothing really stuck out to us as a match. We picked a few shelters and decided to just go by and see what they had.

Mosby contemplating the cosmos.

We met a few dogs at different shelters who were very nice, but nothing that really made a connection. We went to a mall where we knew there was a pet adoption center.

We walked in and I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this little Chihuahua in his little sweater laying in his bed in his cage. He looked at me and perked up.

Him. That was the one. If I get a dog, this will be the dog.

Look, I get it. I’ve read about the hormonal oxytocin feedback systems that dogs and humans developed together throughout evolution. Oxytocin or whatever or not, this little dog looked right into my eyes and grabbed right onto my heart.

Meeting Mosby for the first time 🙂

A shelter employee person let us take him into a little room where we could get to know each other better. There they told us a bit about his history, and how they came to take care of him: he was apparently in an accident with a car, and someone found him injured on the side of the road and brought him to the shelter with a bad leg and a scraped head. Because of the leg, he sometimes limps and favors one of his hind legs.

Mosby home with us for his “trial run”

I was on board right away, but we wanted to be sure about him. We brought the little guy home with us for a 3-day “trial run” to confirm if he was a match for our little family. We decided he was, and we signed the papers to adopt him when the 3 days were over.

We decided to name him Mosby, after Ted Mosby (the main character of one of our favorite TV shows, How I Met Your Mother).

Our fur child’s namesake: The legen- (wait for it…) -dary, LEGENDARY Ted Mosby

Of course, Mosby waited until after he was officially adopted to start barking, haha. He must have known we were his official family, because his protective instincts kicked in that night, and he barked at anything and anyone that came close to our house.

Mosby in his new suit for adoption day!

And as we get to know each other better, it appears that our family may be a healing power for him, as well. I’m pretty sure Mosby came to us from an abusive home, because he cowers if I raise my hand and he runs and hides if I take off my belt. Seeing this just breaks my heart, and also is just added reassurance to me that we made a good decision to bring Mosby into our home.

As it turns out, the internet was right and Mosby has really been a healing power for me, emotionally. It seems that he is aware of when we are hurting or sad and he comes and snuggles and gives kisses. It could be just because he wants the salt from the tears, but I’ll pretend otherwise. He’s very protective of his little pack, and he will bark with all the viciousness of his 7 pounds at anything he perceives is a threat to us. He’s pretty protective of me in particular, and will try to interfere when he thinks Allison is beating me up (aka giving me a hug).

So basically, whoever said that a dog was man’s best friend clearly knew what they were talking about.