Hello and welcome to Put Down The Table, the column where my six year old daughter Josie and I search for fun throughout the WSKG coverage area without the help of our devices.
It has been an interesting time in our household over the past five weeks as we have dealt with a situation that a lot of parents can relate to–the loss of a family pet.
My wife and I moved into our Johnson City home in the spring of 2014 and shortly after we adopted Shea, a little beagle pup that filled our hearts with love, despite his possessive ways and constant need for treats.
Josie was born in 2020 and her ‘furry big brother’ was always super sweet around her. Unfortunately, pets not living as long as their owners is a lesson that many young children have to endure and Shea passed away last month. It was a hard time for the entire family and Josie remembered him by writing down her favorite beagle memories in a notebook.
It didn’t take long for Josie to start asking when we’d be getting a new dog. Her preference was adopting a puppy since Shea was fully grown by the time she was born. My wife and I explained that a puppy is a lot of work to train and we would need her help. We started looking online at local dog shelters and visited the Broome County Humane Society to meet their pups. The employees at the Humane Society did a great job in identifying what would work best for our family and the third dog we saw was a six-month old boxer mix that immediately won us over by hopping on my wife’s lap. We had a discussion on the way home, and less than 48 hours later, Josie and I were back to pick him up.
We decided to name him Soto (can you guess what our favorite baseball team is?) and while he has only been home for ten days it seems like he has been here for years. I made the joke that Soto must be ‘part cat’ because his favorite activity is laying on the couch and getting his belly rubbed. Josie has been doing her part by feeding Soto, helping with his potty training and taking him on walks to let loose that pent up puppy energy. She is really excited that, unlike Shea, Soto is able to sleep in her bed and is proud to declare that ‘the new dog likes me more than you, Dad!’ We have a list of goals: teaching Soto to sit and visiting a dog park are next on the list.
Please give your pet an extra hug after reading this and as the weather warms up let us know what locations across our coverage area we should visit with Soto!
