Don't let looks fool you

So Recently Deb acquired a dog. In fact it all started with a phone call one day in the middle of the afternoon while I was doing my homework and my grandmother had been staying over for a whole week.
"Carrie SHOULD WE GET A DOG?!"
"ummmm...."
"Should we throw out these old hot dogs? what about this salad? I don't see how anybody can eat spinach anyways" my grandmother loves talking to me while I'm on the phone.

"ahh...yeah sure." I say not knowing what we really were getting into. I realized when Deb arrived home later that night that the decision wasn't really up to me or anyone else for that matter. As she drops an armload full of dog toys at our feet it is now clear that this woman is on a mission.

"What the? Where did they get this dog? where is it from? Are you sure no one owns it" I scratch my head in confusion trying to wrap the idea around that there is going to be a dog in the house the next morning that closely resembles a rat.

"It just got dropped off.."She lights a cigarette and pours a glass of wine. This was her tradition when coming home. My mother thinks that one bottle of wine is what the doctors mean when they suggest red wine is good for you, " It was at Sheri's house for two weeks and no one called. They put up posters, called the shelter and no one reported her missing."
Grandma and I are both standing there in silence thinking about the whole thing
"Oh and you two are going to have to give it a bath...it might have fleas. And probably ticks"

Deb brings who we now call Maxie(short for Maxeen, we thought it was a boy at first so we had to change max into something) to the house her eyes lit up with excitement as a short haired Doberman pincher/terrier mix ran around the house to absorb her new surroundings. I ended up giving her two baths that day.

Even after Maxie came I still didn't see the appeal of a dog. Especially after picking up her urine and poop for like five hours straight. Our first dog when I was a kid was a poodle named Kirby Puckett. He was the smallest in his family, and probably the tinest puppy ever. So tiny infact that I could pick him up and swing him by his arms which later led to arthritis but what did I know. This is what I thought the main reasons pets were invented. To dress them up and swing them around in my own whirl of entertainment.

When I moved back in with Deb earlier this year I briefly thought about getting a dog. I don't really know why I think it was just because I was single and I wanted something to run with me. I even went all the way to the humane society and asked one of the workers to pick out a dog for me.
"And this is Spyro"
she handed me his leash and we zoomed throughout the entire building.
"He is a little high strung" she said. And I left later that day even more unsure about the idea. I think what made up my mind in the end when I went over to my brothers house and there on their house was a sign "The Etchyeson Family" and It said the name of my brother and his wife and below where the names of their two dogs and pictures.

Deb however, so the appeal of a dog right away. Almost as soon as she saw Max. I am actually surprised to tell you the truth because up until then Deb was not going to get any more animals. Amos, the asshole cat, was quite enough. But Deb has got up in the middle of the night to sleep with her, cleaned up all of her stuff and actually took her to the vet which we hardly did with Kirby. Many mornings I found Deb on the couch sleeping with max laying besides her.

One night before I was leaving I turned to Deb and said, " Are you sure this is no ones dog? Maybe we should look and see again?" I hate to see max leave considering she's been a pain in the ass but the thought of a family looking for their dog that got away made me concerned. Well, kind of. The whole thing was all too sudden and weird. We have this puppy that no one wanted? Nothing made sense to me.

Deb agreed that she would look, " I do have to say, " she stops and looks down at max, " that she has added so much to my life"

Last night as I was going to bed I realized that max wasn't anywhere to be found. Not in her kennel, not in the living room. I tip toed into my mothers room to see if she was laying on the floor. I finally looked on the bed, although ever since Max arrived the bed has been a forbidden place and it doesn't really matter because she can't get up there anyways. There she was curled up in a ball sleeping soundly with deb. It was then that I finally figured it out that right now it was really just how fate was supposed to go. That dog in the scheme of things was meant to be in Debs life.
It was a comforting thought.