Recently, my household has a new addition to the family in the form of a puppy. My mom wanted us to have another dog to accompany our old dog and because puppies are cute. Like almost all dogs in my country, we’re not really sure of what the breed is, but me and my friends have speculated on the mix of dogs based on looks and behaviour. She arrived home close to two months ago, when she was also barely two months old. She was tiny then, and would follow me around constantly, and if I leave her line of sight for one second she starts crying and whining. She would only feel safe enough to sleep when she’s on my lap, it was adorably cute but very inconvenient when I had to go do stuff on my own. We named her Lilo, and she is a breath of fresh air in our lives.

Having this new responsibility was daunting at first, we already had dogs for almost as long I’ve been living here, but my job has only been to feed them a couple of times a day, I don’t have any experience raising or training the dogs. I’m not really the animal person in my family, that falls more to my sister and mother, but since my sister is not here and my mother is usually busy, it’s now up to me to take care of this new puppy. And honestly I think it’s been really good for me, having something to take care of made me develop a better daily routine for myself as well.

Raising a puppy is similar to raising a child, they have a baby stage, toddler stage and a teenage stage, it’s just fast forwarded since they grow much faster than humans. There’s a lot of challenges to overcome and hundreds of things to teach before they can grow into a well-adjusted adult dog. Lilo is a smart dog, but sometimes she plays dumb when she’s doing something she knows she’s not supposed to, like chewing on furniture, sneaking upstairs and stealing our shoes. Then she would pretend not to hear me calling her name, and if she does acknowledge me, she looks back with puppy dog eyes that says “what? I’m not doing anything.”

But all in all, it’s been a really positive experience. Lilo likes headpats and belly rubs, and she does an adorable spinny dance whenever I feed her. When I’m sitting down working on my computer she lies down on a pillow close to me and sleeps, which is more than I could ever ask for in a young puppy like her. I look forward to bonding more with her, and I know she’ll grow up to be the best dog ever.