I’m going to get sappy here, but 9 years ago today my then partner and I walked into Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, as we did for a few weeks prior, when walking through the kennels I saw a sweet, at most 2 years old pup looking up at me with the biggest brown eyes. She was nervous, but quiet, and I knew we had to meet her. Her name was Nora.
After a couple minutes of meet and greet with her and a BARCS volunteer, we put in our application. Not a second to long considering the couple I held the door open for and who walked in after us also put in an application. Applications are based on chronological order so I think about that moment often and what would have happened if we played with and pet Nora for 10 more seconds before going into the office to put in the application. She was a stray and on a mandatory 3 day stray hold. We visited Nora everyday until we were able to take her home.
During the 9 years since that day there have been home moves, road trips, feline (and human) friends made and lost, life changes, and a genicide of stuffed animals. Through it all Nora has been by my side, as she is while I’m typing this. We both have a lot more grey hairs than we did in 2017, but she is still a sometimes majestic, sometimes smart, often times fart-y, and always silly bean. It’s like the cliché saying hanging at $9.99 wall hanging from Homegoods, “Who saved who?". I don’t know about all that, but I can confidently say that I can’t (and don’t) want to imagine a world without her. Happy gotcha day Nora.
