Priscilla Swain

It’s beautiful how at the beginning, we don’t contemplate the end. Today I remember Helga’s beginning and the sunny Cinco de Mayo when we brought her home for the first time. Before Helga, John and I were just two kids playing house, and long before an engagement ring and a wedding, Helga tied us together. At 22-years-old, I had no business adopting a dog, and I was in over my head, but she granted me grace and the years passed and as Helga grew up, I did too. Did you know dogs can do that? Dogs will raise you while the whole time you might think you are raising them. Helga taught me trust, patience, and unconditional love, all the while Helga grew into a wise old girl who was not to be trifled with. From the very start Helga took no shit. She’d had a tough start as a street dog found tied to a shelter in Puerto Rico. When we happened upon her at a shelter, Helga was on sale. She’d been returned a few times. She barked, she bit, she tugged — she did not have glowing reviews — and we wanted her anyway.
Helga is how and why I believe in love at first sight. Not my sight — I’m too practical for that — but John, he loved Helga the moment he laid eyes on her, which is truly something because she was across the yard actively torturing a shelter volunteer, springing into the air and tugging the leash this poor person was trying to walk her with. The signs were there — Helga was not a golden retriever. But she was ours. She was smart and striking, and with one lick of her surprising black tongue, suddenly we were taking a dog home. (Continued below)