My Path to Motherhood, Part 1: Luna

I knew I wanted kids in the future, but a dog was first in my mind. 

I wanted my own dog for a long time. I dreamed of being a dog mom. I wanted to rescue a lonely animal and stick my face in its fur. I wanted to be comfortable as a dog mom before I had my own human baby because it was important for me to practice caring for another dependent being and satisfy one of my dreams.

When we moved to California, finding an apartment that allowed dogs was a necessity. I made it a stipulation of this move from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles that we’d get a dog once we settled in. When we visited Los Angeles in June 2015 as a part of a cross country road trip, we allocated about five days to find an apartment for our August move, so that when we arrived two months later with a U-Haul filled with our belongings, we could unload them directly into our apartment.

After a few days of visiting various Los Angeles neighborhoods and apartment options, reality set in. We found the perfect place - location, size, price, light, except no dogs allowed. Running out of time and realizing that we couldn’t be too picky, my dream to be a dog mom would need to wait. 

Flash forward about two years later, Andrew finished up graduate school at USC and we discussed moving to a dog-friendly apartment. Although this was not Andrew’s dream, we agreed to start searching for our next place. We didn’t have much income at the time (I was working at a nonprofit and Andrew at a small start-up solar company), so we decided to foster dogs to start because the expenses would be covered by the rescue.

It was very challenging to find the right apartment. The options within our location and budget needs either only allowed small dogs, restricted breeds, required you to submit your dog for approval, or didn’t allow fostering specifically.

I was frustrated by these obstacles, especially breed restrictions. I wanted to rescue a dog that people assumed was aggressive (*cough* pitbull), to prove that you can’t judge a dog by its breed. We finally found an apartment that was only a few blocks away. We could stay in our current neighborhood (that we loved) and amazingly, they allowed dog fostering. We jumped on it! 

After a few weeks of getting settled in, we started applying to rescues to be dog foster parents and reached out to our building manager to fill out the required paperwork and submit a pet deposit. We were shocked to receive an email response from the building owner that we were not allowed to foster dogs! 

To make matters worse, the building manager did not acknowledge that he led us to believe fostering was allowed. We exchanged some heated emails with the building owner and were thankfully permitted to move without penalty by the end of the year. It was incredibly frustrating and upsetting.

So, after one month of living in this apartment, we started searching again. It was mid-November and we were given permission to move out by the end of the year without financial penalty. That was not much time to find an apartment that allowed dogs, was within budget, and in the right location.

We tried to find a new place to live in time, but couldn’t swing it. We ended up moving our belongings in storage and living the month of January with our good friends, Stina and Brendan (above is a photo of me and Stina in 2017). Thankfully, we soon found the right apartment. We moved in, got settled, and then started fostering!

Our first foster pup was named Munster (see photos below). He was a scared dog that barked at everyone and everything. Although he was the sweetest lap dog, that experience ended up shifting our priorities. 

Even though fostering allowed us to save money on the expenses of owning a dog, we realized that for every foster, we would have to start over. We thought that the unpredictability of each new foster’s behavior issues and the need to invest time and energy into training caused enough stress and headache, that we decided to go ahead and rescue a dog and invest our energy into that one animal.

After searching around for a bit, I finally found her. Her listing on petfinder was perfect. It described her as loving, playful, active, house-trained, and good in a house with children, with vaccinations up to date. Her name was Luna. 

We went to see her and took her home for a trial weekend. We were told that other people were interested in adopting her too, so we had to make a decision quickly. On July 6, 2019, we decided to adopt Luna. After a four year delay, three apartments, and many tears, it was real! We had a dog. 

Luna and I playing on the floor of our apartment in summer 2019.