I manifested my dogs. They came into my life in my 20s. I had imagined them precisely in description when I was 8.

I used to love looking at dog breed books. I thought border collies looked so cool. Then my mom said they shed a lot. Then I said to my mom, “What about a short hair border collie?” My mom said that she did not know if the breed even came in that variety. But apparently, they do, they are called a smooth coat collie. Years later when I was 16 or 17, I thought that pit bulls were really cute.

I grew up with small, precious chihuahuas. I also ride horses. So I had always wanted my own dog that was big enough and sensible enough to run free on a farm around horses and that would have a great recall. When I was 21 my dog was given to me. Suddenly, just one day, I got her.

Someone I knew had her in foster care. Other people had been interested in her at first but the people backed out of adopting her because she was too shy and timid. The day I first saw her I was at the farm where she was in foster care. I was there to work and babysit the farm for a weekend while the owners went to a family event. The moment I first saw her I thought she was perfect. She walked away from me at first because she was shy and I was high energy.

A few months later I ended up moving there to manage the farm and ‘my’ dog was still there in foster care. She kept following me everywhere so the people gave her to me. Unanimously. She is my dream dog! She is literally a Saint. So sweet and genial. Perfect recall. Frolics with me in the fields just like I had always envisioned that my “dream, big dog” would behave with me. And everyone loves her. She is so polite and sweet.

Additionally, as I said, I grew up with small dogs. I love small dogs. I had always wanted a small dog from Asia. I am Asian and I just thought it would be cool to have a breed originating from that part of the world.

Through a great, funny, joyful string of events, my parents, who always used to say, “No more pets”,  gave me a Tibetan Spaniel. This is a small dog breed originally bred by Tibetan monks to guard temples and for companionship. He is so cute it could drive you crazy. He is so stinkin’ cute.

Two dogs were handed to me for free and they are my best friends.

If I had told my parents back in the day when I was 8 years old, that one day they would be morally supportive of me being out of college and working on horse farms with my new dog, and then even give me a second dog, and, financially backing the dogs’ medical costs for me when I was in my 20s and back in school, they would have said that was ridiculous.

But my visions of at least these two dream dogs had their own appointed hour and they came at the perfect time. It was after getting each one of them, respectively, that I realized they were actualizations of fun, fanciful daydreams I had painted in my mind’s eye as a child.