Her name is Raegan. And she drives me absolutely insane.

Let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

Last summer, I thought I would get a dog. I deliberately decided to get one in the summer, because I knew I would have more time to train/bond with a dog. First mistake: taking my baby brother and cousin with me to the animal shelter just to look. Our conversation went something like this:

“Ok, I want to get a dog but I can’t get one right this instant. We are here to look.”

Both of them begin nodding heads ecstatically.

“I just want to make sure you understand. No buying today. Just looking.”

More nodding.

“Ok, let’s go.”

We look at all the dogs, and although they were all cute, I didn’t find one that I absolutely had to have. (Why can’t I have this problem with shoes? Or clothes? Or purses?) As we were walking out, we saw some dogs that because they were so small, were put in the same type of kennels as cats/kittens. This is where I saw my future dog.

Do NOT let that cute face get to you. Apparently she was hiding a lot of evil behind that cuteness.

Despite my speech before we walked into the animal shelter, and despite my immediate warm fuzzies for the cutest puppy I had ever laid eyes on (not to be dramatic or anything), I was determined to stick to my guns and not make a rash decision. What helped was that she wasn’t even available to adopt the following week. What did not help was that brother and cousin made it their life’s mission to make sure that I decided to adopt her. In fact, when we left, they spent the rest of their day coming up with a name for her. I settled on Raegan, or Rae Rae for short (because replacing a two syllable name with two one syllable names makes the most sense. But I digress). Ronald Reagan is my brother’s favorite President, and I liked that her name started with an R, since my sister’s dog and my mom’s dog both have names that start with R. What I did not foresee was three dogs’ confused faces when we called any one of them. Hello, they all have the same first initial. How did I miss this?

SPOILER ALERT: I adopted her. She became Raegan Hernandez. And she immediately made my life a living nightmare joy.

“But she is sooooo cute!” you say.

Oh, gentle reader. Cute will only get you so far. Actually, that’s a lie. Cute will get you everywhere because she’s still alive.

Sick because she swallowed an avocado pit. A pit, I tell you! It was almost as big as she was. Thankfully she threw it up instead of it coming out the other end. Ahem.

Even though she was considerably smaller than the other dogs, she would not let them dominate her. If they knocked her down, she would jump right back up and get back to annoying them. She bullied the other dogs. She ran everywhere. She got into every single trash can. She insisted that I be at her beck and call, and if I wasn’t paying attention to her, she would make sure that I did. In fact, one day I was doing homework and she jumped on my books to get my attention.

Do you see that face? That’s called smug. Smug that she managed to make life about her once again.

She got caught being a bully and does she look even the least bit contrite? No, no she does not. Welcome to my world.

Yet despite the roller coaster that is my life as Rae’s momma, I have loved every most of it. I know I’m biased, but I really do think she’s a beautiful dog. A bully? Yes. Crazy? Yes. Sworn enemy of the trash collectors? Judging by the furious barking when they come to get my trash, yes. (Rae, they’re doing us a favor. Let them do their job, please, or you’ll see a mad momma.)  My baby girl? Absolutely.