a year of kira. – gentino family

This may sound ridiculous, but February 11th was truly one of the happiest days of my life.

It was the day I met our pup, Kira.

Don’t ask me how I transformed from a “We will never own a dog” person to an “I just really want a dog” person in just a few months; I think it baffles my husband to this day.

At the risk of over-thinking the matter, I really believe it was the year-and-a-half of counseling we did, starting in summer 2021. I healed in some ways, discovered things about myself I hadn’t known. Like I think I’m in fact be an Enneagram 2 instead of a 1. And I’m a dog person.

So you know the story, we “tried out” the dog-owning thing by fostering through a nearby animal shelter. I highly recommend doing this. A friend of mine who’s a huge dog lover had the opposite experience as I did — fostering allowed her to see that she’s nowhere near ready to own a dog (granted, her kids are much younger than mine). Now she and her sister dog-sit for us whenever we need it and everyone’s happy.

Kira was our third foster, and the third time was the charm. It was love at first sight when I met her at Final Victory Animal Rescue, and I’ve never wavered, even when she turned out to not be potty-trained and kept me up in the middle of the night and chewed my things and annoyed my family. Even when she went into heat three days before her scheduled spay. Even when we spent a total of $1,000 at the vet in 2022 on multiple surgeries and an infected leg. Even when I have to walk her when it’s raining and pick up her poop and trip over her while I’m cooking dinner. Even when her dog crate makes my pretty dining room look cluttered and I vacuum more often and she gets muddy paw prints on my jeans.

I just love her.

I told David, “So many things in life are complicated. Kira isn’t complicated. We know exactly what will make her happy, every single time. She loves us, no questions asked. She thinks we’re amazing even when we’re not. Every time we return home, she’s as overjoyed as if we’d been away for months.”

Making her happy makes me happy.

I’m very thankful to tell you that after a year, all six of us feel the same way. We all love her. We all cuddle with her and pet her and talk to her in annoying baby voices. She’s our baby.

The arguments about getting rid of her are blessedly over. Those were tense days. Sometimes there were tears. My favorite defense of keeping Kira when she was driving us all crazy about 6 months ago is still from Noah: “I just really love having a dog. She keeps me comfort.”

Thank you, Kira, for keeping us all comfort this year. Here’s to many more!