This I Believe

There’s been talk about animals possessing a sixth sense and I believe my story might prove it. I believe puppies have healing powers. When I was about ten years old, my biological parents got a divorce and my younger sister and I moved from our house to a cramped apartment with our mother. Coping with the change was very difficult, but after a few months we got used to the fact that we would always be in each other’s way and that all three of us would have to use the only bathroom at the exact same time. After a few years though, our mother got married, and not only was there a new addition to the family but there was a reduction of our already limited privacy and space in the apartment. We were always at each other’s throat.

After a terrible year filled with stepping on each other’s toes, we moved to a huge old house in a nice neighborhood. Things seemed to be much better with the extra space until we couldn’t afford to keep the heat blasting like we could in our old apartment. We would all be in each other’s way again huddling under blankets in our living room, the only room that was sort of warm. We fought over what we’d watch on TV, who spent too much time on the computer, who had the biggest blanket too long, and so on. The list was endless. If there was any sort of disagreement, everyone in the house, and sometimes a few of our neighbors knew about it.
Thing carried on this way until the summer when all rooms in our big old house were sweltering hot, so we all spent most of our time in our air conditioned living room. We fought over who got the biggest couch, whose food smelled worse, and who did too much laundry. The fighting and bickering was endless. It seemed that our new family was hopeless and my mother even feared that her husband, my new step father would leave.

No one wanted to be home. My sister and I would leave to go to the movies and come home late, which (as you can probably imagine) only made matters worse. Our mother and step father would work overtime every chance they got as to avoid unnecessary fighting at home. Our family was falling apart. We were all sick of each other, and there was none of that family closeness left.

When our friends would hang up with their parents we’d always dread hearing their “I love you too mom” or “Miss you daddy”. And seeing anyone kiss their family goodbye made us cringe because we secretly longed for that at home. Both my sister and my grades dropped, and my own depression became severely bad.

Nearing the Christmas holiday one night, my mother called and asked me to go near my sister and put the phone on speaker. She proceeded to ask my sister and I to sit in our living room with the Christmas tree lights on, and to pretend it was Christmas Eve. She asked us to wait quietly and keep our eyes closed tight. Then, she hung up and we heard our front door unlock. My sister and I squeezed our eyes shut excited for what we hoped was an early Christmas present. We could feel a slight breeze as she and our step father walked silently into the room.

My mother reminded us to keep our eyes shut. Then she gave us a little heartwarming speech that basically told us that this surprise was pretty much from our step father because it was his idea and he had coaxed her to do it for us. She pleaded that we all try our best to get along and not to give up hope for our family. Then she said “okay, open your eyes,” and in our step father’s arms peeking out of his jacket was a tiny black puppy.

Almost immediately, the puppy had an effect on my younger sister and I, as we jumped to hug and kiss our mother and stepfather. We had wanted a puppy so badly but we knew we could only dream of getting one. We were so thankful, and we both knew we’d have some more respect for our stepfather and we’d be more grateful towards our mother. The puppy’s tail wagged back and forth as he kissed my sister and I on the nose.

The puppy, who had come with the name TJ, brought our family together and we watched puppy training videos, took turns teaching him new tricks, and dressed him up to take a photo for our Christmas card. Our love for the little puppy grew and grew. It was something that each family member had in common and we could all relate to. We began to recognize that although we had a lot of differences, concentrating on our similarities would make it much easier to get along. The little puppy brought joy into our house and into each of our hearts.

TJ knows when something is wrong too. When we fight, he lays down and gives us these puppy eyes that we know mean “stop fighting!” Then he kisses us when the fighting stops and helps us to realize that getting along, even though it takes some work, is the right thing to do.

It has only been a few months since TJ healed our broken family, but I hope, like I’m sure my family does as well, that he will continue to bring us together.