It was a warm sunny day in May, I had secretly been dreading this day for months. I had made a promise and I knew today was the day I would have to honor it. That is the thing about promises, once you make them you have to keep them. It was the last day of school for my two children, George was finishing third grade and his brother Josh second. I could hear the bus rumbling down the old dirt road. I slipped my shoes on and walked outside to wait for them. As I neared the driveway, I could see my oldest waving an envelope, yelling in excitement. “I did it mom, I did it!” I acted as if I didn’t know what he was talking about, “What did you do?” I asked. I knew exactly what he had done. He had kept his end of our promise. George looked at me with disappointment in his eyes “you promised,” he reminded me, “I made all A’s this year, I get a puppy.” The next morning we made the trip to the local humane society. I pulled into a parking space near the door, the lot was completely empty. I looked over at George, and asked if he was ready? Before I even finished asking he was slamming the car door shut, and running towards the door of the huge metal building. I could hear loud barking coming from the back of the building as I made my way inside. There was a young girl with a wide smile behind the desk, “can I help you?” she asked. I explained we were looking to adopt a dog. “My son really wants a companion, he’s convinced every boy needs a dog for a best friend,” I told her. “What kind of dog were you thinking of buddy,” she asked my son. “Preferably one that’s house trained,” I answered for him. The girl smirked, she told us it wasn’t likely we would find a house trained dog at the shelter. Most of the dogs they had were strays, surrenders, or taken from puppy mills. As we headed into the back room, the barking became almost unbearable. There were what seemed like a 100 chain link kennels, one connecting to the next. My son ran almost frantically down the aisle, looking for the perfect puppy. I would notice him briefly stop and then he would be off again. The girl continued to happily make small talk and tell me a story of each dog as we passed each kennel. Her stories were so sad to me, abuse, neglect,