I’ll never forget the day my God daughter showed up on my door step holding a big black dirty gym bag across her shoulders saying, "Hi, Auntie, I got a surprise for you!"; little did I know this day would soon become an event we’d each retell throughout the years. As I welcomed my niece inside, she quickly flopped this bag onto my kitchen table, carefully unzipping it to reveal its contents of what looked like a large fluffy balled up blanket (you know the ones that comes with the matching pillow built in and all rolled up into one) Well, as my son and I moved towards the kitchen table for a closer look, we noticed that this large fluffy black ball was not a blanket-pillow thingy at all, but a real live dog. Oh no! My heart immediately began to sink and the look on my sons face went from sheer excitement and enthusiasm and sudden sadness. You see, it was not too long ago that we lost our dearly loved Snow. Snow was our Maltese terrier. She was my eldest son’s first pet, which was also given to us as a gift. Until one day, incidentally, while out for a walk with my son, she was stolen. My son was only eight years old at the time; and for him, the loss of Snow was very traumatic and still very fresh in his mind, that the thought of replacing his Snow with another dog was unthinkable. While we all missed Snow very much, and missed having a pet in the house, the idea of getting another one never came up. Yet here we are today with this tiny, big brown- eyed, fluffy mound of cuteness sitting on our kitchen table. And from what my God daughter explains, is in need of a home. Ok, right now I’m thinking “I’m the adult here; and as you can imagine, this entire scene has caught me completely off guard. At this point, I’m feeling completely uncomfortable and annoyed towards my God daughter for putting me in such awkward position. And even though having another pet in the home would have filed the obvious void that Snows absence has left, I am honestly not ready to deal with nuisances that having a new pet can bring. Before I could get another word out of my mouth, my son and my