I didn’t realize it at the time while it was happening, but now when I look back, I know that the law of attraction and The Secret were definitely working on giving me what I had asked for.

When my two kids were in middle school, they were bugging me to get a second dog. We already had a great dog named Baxter. He was an Irish Water Spaniel and he was about 9 years old at the time. Of course I love dogs so they didn’t have to twist my arm. I started thinking about what breed I would want to get. I have allergies to dogs so I wanted to make sure I got a hypoallergenic type of dog. I also wanted a much smaller dog than Baxter. Too many times when I took Baxter for a walk I would slip and fall during the winter because he pulled so hard. He definitely was walking me. And whenever we went on trips, he took up half the space in our truck.

After much research I decided that a small Cairn Terrier would be the right fit. So I started to look for local breeders, and the closest one I could find was in a neighboring state about two hours away. I called the breeder, and she said she had puppies available. All we had to do was pick a day and time to go see them. Well, this was winter time and we’re a family of skiers. Our weekends were spent on the mountain. On weekdays, the kids didn’t get out of school until 3:00 pm. There was no way we could make a 4 hour round trip and an hour to visit the pups when the kids also had homework to do and school the next day. I decided to give up on the idea because it seemed that the timing just wasn’t right. I also thought that since Baxter was older now, he may not appreciate a young and rambunctious pup running around.

A year and a half goes by, and sadly, one day in June our Baxter passed away. We felt tremendous sadness with his loss. A few weeks go by and my kids start asking me if we’ll get another dog. I said yes, one day but not now. I still need time to grieve and get over losing Baxter. The hurt was still too raw. I told the kids maybe I’ll consider it in the fall.

So another week goes by, and I got a call from a local Animal Shelter I had been volunteering at for the past four years. They said they really needed help tomorrow and would I be available. I said yes I would be there. I asked my daughter if she wanted to go with me to help out. When I got there, I got busy cleaning out some stalls. I was running out of cleaning supplies, so I went to the back side where they keep the dogs that have been recently abandoned to look for cleaning products. These dogs in that section are not yet ready for the public to view. They need to be checked by the veterinarians and evaluated to make sure they find the right homes for them. As I walked by the cages, I saw out of the corner of my eye what looked like a small Cairn Terrier. I stopped to look at him. He was the cutest little thing I had ever seen. Jumping at the cage, so happy to get attention. I read on the description card that he was a 5 year old Cairn Terrier. He was given up because his owners didn’t have time for him.

I ran out to find my daughter. I told her she had to come see this dog. I asked the staff if we could take him for a walk. He was so full of energy. His color was tan and blonde and his name was Teddy. On our drive home we kept talking about him, saying how he is the exact one that we were looking for a year earlier. My daughter kept saying we should get him. I however, kept saying it was too soon. It had only been a month since we lost Baxter. I just didn’t feel ready to bring another dog into my life when I was still hurting so much from losing Baxter.

That evening, both kids were bugging me to get Teddy and make him ours. Just do it, they said. I finally gave in. So the next day, we all went to the shelter to get Teddy and bring him to his forever home.

It wasn’t long after that, that I started to think back on how it all happened. Here’s the strange part. In the four years that I had been volunteering at the shelter, not once, again not once, did they ever call me to come in to help. I was told that I could go and help whenever it worked for me. So that’s what I did. Whenever I had free time I went to the shelter. This is when I realized that the Universe did its magic and gave us the Cairn Terrier we had wanted a year and a half earlier. I sometimes think Teddy was a gift from Baxter. I’m still amazed at how Teddy came into our lives. I never did get another call to go help out. I only ever got the one call that led me to find Teddy, who brought so much joy to our lives.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Universe. You work in mysterious ways.