It was my parents’ church meeting at a church member’s house. I was left there with nobody to play with, besides a dog. The few times i actually went to pet the dog the dog didn’t care and seemed to see me as just a regular person. However, when I pet the dog when it was eating, the dog’s view of me changed. I suddenly became a predator, someone trying steal its food. The dog warned me to go away in a growl, and I instantly removed my hand from the dog. My eyes began to water and I ran for my mom. My mom hugged me while I wept. For some reason, that was the moment that I thought all dogs were mean, even though this dog was mean to me because of a reason.

In the next 3 years that followed, I avoided dogs. They frightened me and I still did not know that if I gave something or someone respect, I would get respect back (most of the time). However, when I was in going into 3rd grade, my parents and I went to visit my cousins in canada. Little did I know that they had not one, but two dogs. As I walked into their house I was greeted by two little dogs looking at me and my family. They started to bark at me, but I was not bothered. It may have been the size of the dogs, or my relationship with their owners, but for some reason they did not intimidate me. The dogs were friendly towards me, with one of them following me. The more I was around them, I slowly learned that dogs are friendly creatures and my opinion would be changed. When I left Canada, I felt a longing to get a dog.

Next year, after I came home from Korea, my dog was sleeping in my house. I knew that my dog would be there, but I didn’t know what my dog looked like. She was a white dog with three brown dots on her back and an arrow on her head.  It was the first time in my life that I was happy to see a dog. I pet her and put her on my lap. She rested and my parents and I figured out a name for our new dog. We decided to call her Soonee, because it sounded fitting when my mom suggested it.