Two years ago today, I adopted Miss Pepper from the Front Street Animal shelter in Sacramento. I drove back and forth from my home to Sacramento (which is about a 2.5-hour drive back and forth) all weekend to meet her and then adopt her the next day. I’ve had pets all my life but they were always family pets ya know. But this time around, I was 19, a whole adult not needing my mom’s permission to get a dog, so I got a dog! Brining pets home honestly is just something my family does, we love our pets more than anything. Also okay, to be fair because I know my mom is going to read this, Pepper was initially supposed to go to my dad’s house but like, I don’t live at my dad’s and I didn’t want to drive back and forth (which lol it’s literally a 1-minute drive) so I ended up just keeping Pepper at my house. Even to this day, my mom says Pepper needs to go to my dad’s BUT I know she wouldn’t even want that! She gives Pepper more treats than I do!

Here’s a little info on who Pepper is:

Pepper is a 4-year-old American pit bull terrier (I am also convinced she has some type of Labrador in her. Strangers even ask me if she’s a labrador!) that I adopted when she was only 2-years old! Her full name is Pepper Flour so that when people met her they would think I meant the actual flower with pollen, not baking flour. I also worked at a cookie dough store at the time so flour made sense. The name “Pepper” came from the character “Pepper Potts” in Iron Man, which is one of my favorite movies because well, Robert Downey Jr. is so cute! Anyways, I tear up just by the thought of her getting older, she really is my daughter! She snorts like a pig, I think it’s because she had a respiratory infection when she was at the shelter.

My best friend, Sol, describes Pepper as “adorable, fierce caring, protective, and loving.” My other best friend, Byron, would describe her as “Goofy. Powerful. Arthritis. Good girl. Beefy.” She’s basically my other half, I’m convinced we look alike okay, everyone says that we don’t but whatever! She loves sleeping on the couch. No matter how many times we take her off the couch, she’ll just go to the other side of the couch to see if someone else will let her come up. She’s really good at giving people the puppy eyes, and they always fall for it. She loves car rides, squeaky toys, and going for walks. She has arthritis in her back left leg but she never lets that stop her from making me run on our “walks.” She loves kids and doesn’t mind when they lay on top of her.

My favorite thing in the world is coming home and being welcomed by Pepper’s kisses as if I was gone for years! When I first adopted her, her separation anxiety was really bad and it would break my heart to hear her cry. Thankfully, it isn’t as bad at all but she still prefers that I never leave her for even a second. She doesn’t really mind when I dress her up in costumes, well she does but I think she just tolerates it for me. OMG! I almost forget to mention, she loves toys but she loves ripping them apart even more! We’ve all gotten used to it so we just don’t buy her the expensive toys anymore. We’ve tried toys of all kinds and even the “indestructible” ones are destructible.

Any-who, Pepper and I spent our day walking in Briones again and it was so beautiful. It’s just one big open grass field that we get to run in and have some pretty sick views. I am forever thankful for Pepper’s existence. She is my shining star and I thank the universe for her everyday!