Flashback Friday - Project Baby Edition

I am copying and pasting a blog from Project Baby because JUST one week ago, I had dinner with my girl Ginger. Ginger and I were catching up on a few funnies from the past few years of our life (ok, a LOT of funnies) and she said Lisa had moved into her house while she was doing an internship in FL. I said "how did I not know this?" She said "Kristin set us up. And Lisa had a dog that lived with her." I immediately yelled "SHE BROUGHT FARVA WITH HER? KRISTIN MADE HER BRING FARVA?" Ginger said she didn't think Kristin had anything to do with the dog Lisa brought (it was Lisa's dog, not Kristin's and it definitely wasn't Farva...but I didn't find this out until I talked to Lisa a few days later). however, today, I go to do my daily blog perusing and I find the below. Even to do this day, the FIRST dog that comes to my mind is...FARVA. no, not Larva. FARVA.
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The photo above will strike fear in the hearts of the following people: my parents, Lisa, Meagan, Meredith, an ex-boyfriend or two, and myself.

What you are seeing is one of “Kristin’s Biggest Mistakes”: adopting Farva.

Why did I randomly adopt this dog and bring him home to our little college apartment Junior year? I have no idea. I have no excuse. But let me sum up the experience for you:

• He had severe separation anxiety
• The shedding…oh, the shedding
• He snapped at a little kid on Halloween night
• He had HEARTWORMS (thanks, shelter in Greensboro)
• He was….crazy.

The tipping point was when Lisa and I came home to a HOUSE FULL OF BLOODY PAW PRINTS. You see, Farva did not like to be caged during the day. He broke every play pin and dog crate I bought. So I got serious and welded a steel door to the front and sides of a large dog crate.

He chewed through the steel. Blood everywhere. It was time for him to go.

I took him back to the shelter. The following day, a family I knew said they were interested in adopting him as an outside dog. I called the shelter to share the good news. TOO BAD HE BROKE OUT OF THE SHELTER AND RAN AWAY.

“He ran towards the road and took a right. He was looking for you,” they said.

GREAT.

Ever since this catastrophe, I have been extremely cautious about buying/adopting pets. In fact, this experience taught me MANY life lessons in general. When Matt and I considered starting a family, I thought back on Farva. Would our little baby be like him? Chewing through steel and acting insane? Surely not. But I did think about it for a long time…no more impulse decisions for me.

There are a few things in life you can’t give back - one of those things is a baby.

I feel confident we will be just fine, but the ghost of Farva still lingers above my head every time we make a big life decision. “Let’s think this through,” I say to myself.

How did a random PetSmart adoption turn into a lifelong lesson? I’ll never know.
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