So, I'm losing my job maybe as early as February. That's fine since I had decided to go back home and go to school.
I have a 1-1/2 year old Labrador that I adore probably more than is healthy (she's my everything at the moment).
And my mom texts me today with this:
Mom: "Want another dog?" (now, she didn't really want me to get my current dog and she knows I want more but has been against it for very reasonable, legit reasons that I completely agree with).
Me: "What? Are you serious?"
Mom: "Yes, 4-month-old pitbull, your choice male or female. Same breeder as *a friend's puppy earlier this year that my parents loved* dog."
Me: "Are. You. Serious?"
Mom: "Yes!"
The whole story is this: My mom's friend is living with my parents while she gets on her feet. She's had a rough life (much of it brought on by her own actions but some not, like all of us). She has a lot of mental health issues and just general issues. She's 51, homeless (for the most part), with no job and - yea. It's tough. I'm actually caught waiting for her to leave my parents house before I can move home; if she's still there when we get laid off, I'll be camping out in their travel trailer until she does lol
Anyway, she left a relationship she had down close to where I live a few months ago for reasons that are not entirely clear. A "he said/she said" situation; she said he drinks too much, he said she drinks too (they met at a bar for crying out loud). Anyway, my mom came down with her today (I didn't know this) to pick up all of her stuff (actually, her friend had been here for a few days because her ex was apparently quite sick).
He has these 2 puppies from the same breeder my mom's friend's son got his puppy from earlier this year. That dog, at 4 months, was the sweetest, most well behaved thing. Even better than my dog at that age. My parents have always been a bit prejudiced against the breed whereas I have always said it's a combination of bad breeding and bad rearing that leads to problems. There are certain things in their genes that you cannot ignore but you can help them redirect that energy if you're dedicated enough. My parents really liked that puppy and kind of opened their minds about pitbulls in general. Anyway, the boyfriend's landlord came over while mom and her friend were loading up stuff. The boyfriend was drunk as a skunk; falling over, swearing, just plastered. The landlord told him he had to get rid of the dogs, that he wasn't allowed dogs there and he'd been given several warnings about them. He turned to my mom's friend and said "you take 'em.. if you don't.. i'mma..dunno what i'll do.. i'll shoot 'em or.. give them to the SPCA.." Down here, many people that take pitbulls are not the type of people who should have them (i.e. drug dealers, wannabe thugs, etc. It's bad that the city I live in now ships pitbulls out to other communities because as soon as they get them in, they get the dealers and the gang bangers looking to "adopt" them). The shelters are overrun with dogs, especially pits and pit mixes, and the prospect of him killing two puppies was just too much - so my mom and her friend grabbed both of them, tossed them (not literally) in the van and took off.
Last night, my mom's friend asked my dad if she could bring one of the puppies home with her and he was livid. My dad is a quick-to-temper man and gets mad at just about everything whether he understands or agrees or not. You tell him "Hey, the Canucks got rid of (this player)" and he's all "those son'sof$*%&es don't know what they had blah blah" even though he probably couldn't pick the guy out of a lineup and doesn't know that in, for example, 30 games the guy hadn't scored a single goal. He was also infuriated when my sister got her cat, but he did get over it. He was mad when we got our papillon but after a while (and a loong while) he eventually started taking her out for walks and now she's his walking buddy. So he gets over things.
He doesn't know my mom and her friend are bringing back BOTH puppies.
I have agreed on the condition that I like the puppy and I think the temperament is something I can work with, that I will take the female. My mom's friend was trying to get me to take both dogs, but that I just CANNOT do. I really can't take the female, but how was I to say no? Either I take one of them, or they both go to the shelter where they may/may not be euthanized. It's not THEIR fault they came into the word; it's not THEIR fault they got stuck with a loser.
When my dad finds out, he is going to FREAK. They have 2 dogs, I have 1 dog, if I take on another there will be 4 dogs in the house and 5 dogs until my mom's friend leaves (she wants to take the male, but she doesn't even have food to feed herself with).
My thinking is this: I will see the puppy, check her out, see what her temperament is like and decide. If I agree to take her (she'll have to stay with my parents until I move home; my landlady will not allow another dog), the plan is to socialize her, obedience train the heck out of her, spay her, and then adopt her out.
Am I crazy?
I feel crazy.
I am the type of person who, if I had the money and space, I'd have a huge pack of dogs. I didn't really want a pitbull (nothing against them at all) as they aren't my FAVORITE breed, but I do like them and I do think I could do right by her, even just to give her a solid foundation and work hard to find her the perfect family.
But at the same time, I feel like a complete idiot: here I am losing my job, going to be going back to school (albeit by correspondence) and I already have a dog, taking on a new puppy.
I must be stupid.