The Coalition of Sierra J. Rubenstein

Liberation Part III: A Dog Named Princess

This chapter started off with me going out with my baseball team for a community event where all clubs and sports helped clean the community one Saturday morning. Sierra decided to go visit the humane pound over by the airport to walk dogs with Mya and Claire. It was a complete surprise to me that Mya and Sierra patched things up. If you heard all the things Sierra said about Mya, you would think they were done with each other as well. I was gone for a few hours before returning home to rest. I checked my phone to see if I missed any messages from Sierra. Sure enough, Sierra was sending me pictures of this dog she had been walking. She told me she was a mix breed of a golden lab and a beagle. Sierra sent me a few messages asking to adopt the dog. I responded saying that we can not afford the dog, we need more money to support her. Sierra responds back saying she will save more money to pay for the dog's needs. What was stopping her before from saving up money? She could have paid for more things on date nights. I asked Sierra if she figured out the fees that our landlord will charge. Sierra told me she talked with Shelly and found out it would cost $23 extra on rent. Then I went on a tangent about living space and bathroom needs for the dog, but I believed Sierra truly worked it out. I came down to the shelter to see the dog. I met the dog and her name was Princess. I started learning more about the dog and her health. Sierra said Princess does not like men. She flipped out on one of the male workers there and tried to bite him. When I learned this detail, I was petting the dog at that time. I asked Sierra why she wanted a dog that did not like men. The dog would be in a small living space with a man most of the time. To be honest, I think Sierra wanted Princess for that reason. Sierra did not want the dog to like me just so she can be all hers. I did not realize that until next year. The crazy thing is, Princess did not react negatively towards me. I know how to approach dogs like Princess and it came in handy with her. Princess started off indifferent towards me without much care, but was willing for me to walk her around on a leash. Sierra continued telling how Princess was already fully grown as she maintained the size of a beagle. Princess was abused by her last owners, which explained the scar on her snout. The last owners gave her up because they were moving and did not want to bring her. I knew going there was just going to lead to me being attached.
Ever since we moved into our apartment, Sierra had been begging for us to adopt a dog because her dog Noodles was close to death. She wanted to be ready when that happens to fill the void in her heart. I shut down that idea everyday she brought it up. Now when I asked her about why adopt Princess, Sierra said it would help with her depression and have someone around when I left for work. Then I learned Princess tested positive for Lyme disease and I felt sorry for the girl. The last thing I asked Sierra was why she needed me? I have not been able to stop her from doing anything. Turns out Sierra was too young for adoption. You need to be 21 or older to adopt a pet at the shelter and Mya wanted the dog for herself so she was not going to adopt Princess for Sierra. I decided to fill out the forms to adopt Princess. We had to wait to hear from the shelter if we got her or not. During those three days of waiting, Sierra brought herself into an anxiety attack twice all because she thought we would not get the dog. I got the call saying Princess was all ours and I drove down to pick her up. I ended up renaming Princess to Buttercup because she is short and blonde. We have had our problems with Buttercup. She has anxiety when being left alone. Most times out of spite, Buttercup would pee on the carpet or dig through the trash. One of the things that I find funny about Buttercup is how she smiles when she gets in trouble. I have never seen a dog smile like her without even showing teeth. She is just too cute to be upset at. When we first got her, all we did was take her out and about the area. We took her to Ocean City, Salisbury parks, Petsmart, and around our neighborhood. Everything was good with our new pet, but I never told my parents until we came down one week for bowling. I dropped Buttercup off and they came home to find her playing with my parents dogs. She is about half their size and loved proving how tough she was. Buttercup bullied the two big black labs, but they all got along very well. My mom fell in love with Buttercup and still calls the dog her grandog. My parents were pissed at me for adopting a pet, but forgave me since my dad did the same thing with their other dog Bruno.
I almost forgot about an important detail when we first brought Buttercup home. We ran by our landlord's office to show her our new dog and see how our new rent will be. Shelly pulled out our new agreement with the rent. Buttercup was costing us $23 extra a month, but wait...$200 deposit is needed. Not a big surprise to me; when I researched these apartments, I saw that they require deposits for just about everything. As a smart ass I talked to Sierra about what we just learned, "I thought you told me there was not deposit, Sierra".
"Well yeah, but um–"
"You told me that you already talked with Shelly about rent".
Yes, I did this in front of our landlord. Sierra had nothing to say until we walked out to finally respond to me explaining that Shelly only told her about the extra amount on rent and not any deposit. All I did was shake my head at her. I knew she was lying, I was just waiting for someone else to call Sierra on her own lie. I thought it was bad to lie to your boyfriend about the rent for our dog, but what is worse in my eyes is Sierra neglecting Buttercup. I am going to give Sierra the benefit of the doubt and round the number to three weeks. It took three weeks for the novelty of a new pet to ware off. It was just like a child playing with a new toy, Sierra got over Buttercup. I use to come home from practice and just watch Sierra push our dog away as she focused on social media from her phone. Sierra stopped paying attention to Buttercup or even doing things with her. Sierra practically turned into her father; only showing love monetarily. I know I have not had a great relationship with our dog at first, but I still care enough to pet her and play with her. I was designated to walk Buttercup exclusively everyday. I was walking her three times a day during the winter and five times during summer. Sierra kept making excuses for not walking her closer to the end of my first semester. She stopped making time during the morning (kept telling me she was running late most days) and was too tired most nights after work. So much for Sierra to look after the dog.