Can you remember being in the first grade? It seems like an eternity ago, but there are still many wonderful memories. Mine would be finally getting the new member of the family adopted. My Mother was a little bit upset that my sister and I were going to school for full days, and needed a “baby” to keep her company while my father was at work. We already had our Rottweiler Sadie at the time, but she wanted something small. Mom had thought about Sadie’s case, and it looked like she would need company as well. As soon as Dad walked into the door, my Mom briefly explained her and Sadie’s case with Sadie at her side, as if she was waiting for a positive response.

“John… what do you think about a new puppy?” my Mother had asked. My sister and I simultaneously replied to the word “puppy”

“A PUPPY? WHERE?”

“There is no puppy anywhere!” my Dad told us. Dad loved Sadie, but he wasn’t too sure about a new puppy. Puppies are expensive. Now being in the eighth grade, anyone would understand how much things cost these days, but when you’re in the first grade, what kid really cares about economics?

It had seemed like the subject was dropped when we started eating dinner. But my Mother on the other hand, was searching for quite a while until she came across and article in a Newspaper. In the black and white print, she had read about Doberman Rottweiler German Shepherd mixed puppies that needed homes. You know Dads… they get distracted. Football. Breakfast. Some home theater magazine that he has been raving about since he subscribed for a few issues. You get the point… any who, Dad must have been out of the room at the time, so my Mother called the number proudly displayed under the picture of puppies, which were amazingly cute. My Dad caught parts of the phone call.


“We can come see them soon, if we like!” My Mother had told my Dad, who had just walked back into the room.

“WE CAN?” my sister and I replied.





A few weeks later…

The car had stopped. YES!!!!!!!! We unbuckled our seatbelts, and got out of the car and into the puppy’s owner’s yard to find no scampering little dogs. Suddenly, a pickup truck had pulled up with eight week old puppies all the way from Montana barking, and howling inside. Oh, you should have seen them storm out of that truck. A litter of thirteen was definitely too big for that truck. One more, and there would be a puppy avalanche. No search and rescue team for this one though, I would have loved being with all of those puppies. The howling crowd hurdled their way over to the yard, and chased me and my sister for what it seemed like a very long time. The pups were cute but we all faced one problem: Which one do we chose?

There had been one that stood out from her siblings. She had small bits of red on her head instead of brown, like her siblings. She was a little bit on the klutzy side, too. Like in The Simpsons, when Bart throws the Frisbee to Santa’s Little Helper, and he just sits there while it hits him in the face. She was definitely that kind of a klutz, but she was not about to let that keep her from being the second puppy adopted. (The first was Zula, which the owners of the puppy’s parents had adopted.) The little pup had separated from her brothers and sisters, and scampered over to my Mother, and waited for some affection.

“AWWWWWWW!” my mother had exclaimed, look at this one! She’s so cute!”

“Hi there!” After seeing this little beauty, Dad was starting to like the idea of a new family member. After awww-ing at the little puppy, Mom had put her down, and let her run around some more in the yard. After stumbling on her huge paws while running, she came back to Mom, and gave her the most magnanimous look I had ever seen. You have never seen the puppy face until you had seen this puppy’s perfect impression. My Mother had put her down once again, and thought about this puppy. Well, her personality was great, she was super playful, and a bit of a klutz. Still cute. Sadie would love her. My Mother had learned to let the dog choose you, not you choosing the dog, and this little puppy had chosen our family right away.

“YAY!” I screamed. We had just adopted the new member of the family! After goodbyes, we took the new member of the Clan into our Crisp White Suzuki, and headed back to our house with Sadie wondering what the heck was going on. On the way there, certain questions bounced through our heads. Would Sadie like her? Would she reject her, and completely avoid her? Would Sadie-

“Here we are, girl! We’re home!” said Mom. We walked in carefully, with Sadie bolting to the door with her signature grin, as if to say “Did you miss me? Huh? Did you? Did you?” That grin quickly transitioned to confusion when Mom put the small puppy on the ground. Sadie wasn’t quite sure on how to react, so her face had just said enough.

“OMG WHAT DID YOU JUST PUT ON THIS FLOOR? wait… she’s actually kind of cute… NEVER MIND!” It turns out that Sadie had been playing with the new puppy like any mother would, so it seemed that she must have really liked her. She had guided the puppy when her klutziness would take over, or if she would trip on her huge paws.

“What do we name her?” I would below out.

“We’ve been through this for the thousandth time…I DON’T KNOW!” Finally bored, I heard my Mother going through a grocery list, or so I thought. I’m not sure what she was going through, but I could have sworn that she said “Kleenex”.

“Kleenex?” I started. My Mother didn’t understand what I had just said, and thought I had said “Phoenix”.

“Phoenix?” she replied. The puppy’s eyes lit up, and she must have loved the name.

“What about Phoenix?” I questioned. Soon enough, she little puppy was not so little anymore (Her paws never really changed size) and wears a collar with flames on it to represent her firey name, Phoenix. We had given her the nick name Phoenie Beanie, and she still comes to the funny saying. Sadie was like a second mother to Phoenix, and never let anyone take that position. Sadly, one year later, Sadie got Cancer, and died. It was heart breaking to come home to that kind of news. Phoenix never got to say goodbye to her trusted guardian, and that really hurts. Well, we all seemed happy when my Nama brought over some fried chicken. Well, of course we were still bummed out, but Phoenix was totally ok with a 5 star chicken dinner. That’s what I love about Phoenie: No matter what the situation, she’s still happy about something.

Well, Phoenix is truly a wonderful friend. She has made every sad situation seem like nothing ever happened with her optimism. If I’m either just walking by, and give her a pat on the head, or try to play Frisbee with her (she usually just takes the Frisbee, and runs around with it) it is such a treat to be with Phoenix. And to that, she deserves a treat. Despite her rather large size, she will always and forever will be the floppy and klutzy puppy that chose our family to spend the rest of her life with.
I love Phoenix ever so much. No dog could ever replace her.