The Pet Store and Panda

995 Words2 Pages

As I walked through the door, the smell of animal droppings filled my nose, the barking and talking of various people filled my ears. I had come alone because my parents didn’t want to tag along. When I asked them why, they recited the most annoying apothegm any parent could ever say, “Because I said so.” Parents say the darndest things. To be honest, I hated going anywhere alone, mostly because I was still a kid and I was afraid. The pet store was the only place I felt safe, besides home.

I went over to a window labeled “German Shepherd” and “Bernese Mountain.” They were both still babies and I guessed they were no older than a month or so. The window above contained a fluffy white puppy with big black patches and brown eyes that were buried beneath its black, furry bangs. The red paper collar told me it was a female. The moment my eyes caught glimpse of her, I knew she was exactly the kind of friend I needed. I also knew that I would never be able to convince my parents to buy her. According to the label, she was a Lhasa Apso, Maltese and Shih Tzu mix.

As I kept walking, I saw many little puppies that had just been born, including a silly Yorkshire terrier, a loud Boxer, a sleepy Papillion, and much more. Some dogs were biting each other playfully, others were sleeping and others paid attention to the mysterious humans observing them. At the end of the dog isle came a window that contained three, small gray cats who were most likely siblings. Two of them were sleeping in their comfortable bed and the other one was playing with a toy ball. I turned around to see small, furry bunnies eating in one cage. The cage next to it contained a bigger rabbit with white fur and pink eyes. In another cage, there were ginger colored hams...

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...ppily. I told myself my dad wouldn’t regret it.

He was still a little bit unsure about the whole thing when he saw Panda for the first time. After my dad said we’d buy her, we waited about 10 minutes before they brought her out. As I held her in my arms, I could feel her devastation of being let out of the prison cell and into human arms. We waited until my parents were done handling papers and buying supplies. I carried Panda all the way home, since she wasn’t ready to walk on a leash yet.

“Do you have a name picked out for her yet?” my dad asked me.

“Yep. Panda,” I answered cheerfully.

“It sure does suit her,” my mom said.

Panda sniffed around the house, curious about her new surroundings. After a couple of days, she got used to her surroundings as well as responding to her name. My parents grew to love her like a child and I grew to love her as a sister.

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