When I was eight years old in 2010, my dad would always say we could get a dog when I turned 15. As a young kid, that felt like an eternity away. Turns out, he was only kidding. I didn’t have to wait that long. In 2014, our family adopted a pit bull mix named Bruno.
Even though it was always my dad who talked about getting a dog, it was my mom who found Bruno. Using an adoption site called petfinder.com, she discovered a year and a half year old brown and white “boxer mix” who we as a family expressed interest in. Upon further research, we found that he was going to be available for adoption at an event in Trenton, NJ. After some discussion, we decided to make the move to adopt him, and we set out for New Jersey early on a Sunday morning to meet the newest member of our family.
After we arrived and waited a bit in the lot, a van that had traveled from South Carolina pulled up. A woman got out and unlocked the back of the van, and out rushed a pack of dogs elated to meet their new families. We spotted Bruno right away, and as if he knew we were there for him, he ran straight to us, unable to control his excitement.
After he calmed down a bit, my dad was the first to walk him around the lot. Then, each of us spent some time with him individually. Then, we gathered to make the final decision to officially sign the adoption forms. With everything official, we again loaded into the car, this time as a family of five.
Bruno slept the entire ride home, seemingly knowing his days as a shelter dog were over. While there were some early challenges in his first days and weeks with us, he settled in and became the perfect addition to our family. It’s been over a decade since that day, and Bruno has been a loyal companion to us all. It has been so fulfilling to have him in our lives and adopting him was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.
From time to time, our family will watch reruns of either the National Dog Show or the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. We judge each dog, deciding which ones we like, which of course is completely arbitrary. Each time, my dad jokes that we should see if Bruno could compete. Of course, he immediately concedes that it would never happen because Bruno is too lazy and stubborn. This is completely true, as there are times Bruno won’t even want to get off the couch to go to bed at night. Even though he’ll never be a best in show winner, Bruno is a champion to all of us and everyone he meets.
This year, I’m actually working on the National Dog Show through my internship at Vizion Group PR, promoting ticket sales to the event in November and driving interest in the famed NBC broadcast on Thanksgiving Day. Getting to see the planning and production behind the scenes of the Thanksgiving tradition has been a valuable learning experience, and I can’t wait to watch the show with Bruno in November.
If you’d like to attend this year’s show, which takes place on November 16-17 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA, visit www.nds.nationaldogshow.com for tickets and more information. If you can’t make it to the show, be sure to tune in from 12-2 PM on Thanksgiving Day on NBC. It’s a great way to celebrate the impact dogs like Bruno and so many others have in our lives and the love and companionship they bring.