The Story Of How We Got Her
by Trisha Verma
I have always wanted a dog, ever since I was little. But even then, I knew it would be really hard to convince my parents. When I was ten, I decided that was the year to start convincing my parents.
I started by writing a long letter to my parents about all the reasons that a dog would be a great addition to our family. I had done things like this in the past, about different topics so my parents were used to it and didn't get convinced at all. So, I started writing many, many emails, around 2 or 3 per week. I sent them during my free time and waited till my parents saw them. My mom became convinced. It was easy to convince her, since as a child, she also wanted a dog. Now was the tricky part, convincing my dad.
I sought help from two sources : my mom and the internet. My mom said to do something that my dad would see everyday and it would be in his face. The internet gave me an idea; I could tape a bunch of pictures of dogs around the house. My dad would see that I really was taking time into this and it would soften his mind before the next step. So, every day, I stuck 1 or 2 photos of dogs and people with dogs around the house, in places like the front door, on his pillow, on the microwave, and even in the bathroom. This did exactly what I wanted it to.
Final step; my dad was allergic to dogs so he used that as a constant excuse. I set out to do some research. I found a list of hypoallergenic dogs and showed it to my dad, explaining how this helped us. That was the day my dad made a deal with me. He would think about it and tell me on my 11th birthday whether I would get a dog or my 12th birthday. I wrote up a contract, made him sign it, and hung it in my room.
My 11th birthday made me anxious. My dad was in India on my birthday, so when he sent me a card, he wrote, "We are really sorry to tell you this, but we have decided, no, you can not get a dog for this birthday." Then, he had put a flap that was closed and my mom made me open it. I was already in tears. Inside the flap, it said, "... for next birthday." He had stuck one of my pictures of a person and a dog on the flap. We started looking at breeders around months before my birthday. In Jan, we went to a certain breeder, just to look. My parents made it very clear we were just there to look. We looked at all the dogs, but only two were what we wanted. First, we took a brown and black Yorkie out. She was adorable, but pretty quiet and mellow. When we tried the Teddy Bear, Coco, she was instantly super excited. I loved her and spent lots of time playing with her, and so did my parents. But, daddy realized that she was perfect for us and we spent 3 or 4 hours there, deciding whether to take her home. In the end, she was ours!(even though my birthday wasn't for another 2 months)
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This was the exact picture that was used in my birthday card.
A recent picture of her wrapped in a blanket :)
Timeline of Coco
Life-Time (some events may be taken off)
2 days after we got her, she fell sick from stress and an infection. She was at the breeders and vet for a week. We missed her so much.
When Coco turned four months old, we took her for her first grooming session, at PetSmart. At the end, they gave her an adorable bandana!
Coco got spayed and wasn't allowed to run and jump in the backyard for two weeks. She was in pain the first couple days but she got better.
This was Coco's first visit to an actual park. She had a great time runnning around, playing fetch, and being petted by kids.
This was the day we first got her. She was really hyper when she was out of the cage, but as soon as we put her in, she barked like crazy.
We took Coco for her first over 10 minutes ride to Long Island. We had to drive really slow to avoid any sickness. But we made it and she had a blast over there.
What Has She Done Now?
04.15.2017
Mom's mom, Cookee's grandma, was having breakfast and Coco was watching her, waiting for something to drop. She suddenly realized that her pill for lowering blood pressure was missing and she couldn't remember if she had taken it. She feared Coco had taken it. She started to stress out, causing us to too. We called the vet, because that could have serious effects. Turns out in the end, we worried for nothing. Stressful mornin' for everyone!
04.23.2017
We started to teach her the trick, "down". She is kind of getting it, but sometimes, she gets confused with "sit". Since, her favorite treat for training are strawberries, we give her those, since she would want to do better with them than other treats.
Every day.
Every morning, Coco has started the habit of running into the master bedroom, and since she knows that she is not allowed to be on the bed, she conveniently jumps on the nightstand and onto the bed. This usually ends with mom and dad being woken up and Coco on their faces.
