after a few months of being in our new home we felt something was missing. we had lots of love to give and wanted to share it but since i don't have a ring yet getting knocked up wasn't an option, so we decided to get a puppy! actually it wasn't that easy, i had to convince jack (and our mothers) that i really wanted a puppy and that i was ready for the responsibility. after much convincing, 100's of links to adorable puppies, and a pet store visit that left me in tears after playing with the sweetest pup ever jack started to take me serious. after doing research we decided that adopting was the best option for us as it allowed us to save a puppy's life and give it a life of love that it wouldn't have otherwise. we spent days searching on petfinder, starring our favorites, reading the background stories, and emailing the adoption agencies...then one day we saw charlie! actually, we saw rumple charlie's brother who had a face full of wrinkles that made us forget about every other dog we looked at! immediately i filled out an application then jack realized rumple and his sisters were going to be at an adoption event at petco that weekend; the only problem we were hosting a lunch party at our house the day of the adoption and the petco was over an hour away so that wasn't an option...or so i thought. that saturday we woke up early to prep the apartment for the get together but we couldn't stop thinking of rumple. i told jack "if he's not adopted by tomorrow, it was meant to be", he said "f that", rented a zipcar, and were off! we got the car at 10am to try and make it by the 11am start time, meanwhile; we had guests arriving at our home at 2pm...it was one crazy morning to say the least. the car ride down to jersey was filled with anxiety and excitement, it was a race to the finish line we had made it this far, coming home without rumple wasn't an option. (*side note we knew we were going to name our puppy charlie from the get) we made it to petco at 11am on the dot and ran inside to get our boy. once we saw rumple and his sisters we melted and it confirmed our feelings and how stinking cute that bunch was; it was time to get aggressive and make our move before someone tried to snag our pup...except it turned out someone beat us to it, rumple was on hold! devastation didn't last long because there was crinkle (soon to be our girl charlie), with her 4 pound body and big wrinkled paws! we filled out the application on site, they called our references, we filled out some papers, paid some fees, then we heard "crinkle meet your parents" ::heart melts:: and we were off! we picked up some puppy necessities (except a cute outfit and bow because my boyfriend vetoed it immediately, jerk!). that saturday our girl charlie was super mellow and very into being cuddled, we thought what a good apartment dog she is, so quiet but were hoping that she'd eventually get used to her new home and start doing puppy activities. on sunday she did just that when she met my little cousins and showed us her playful side as she chased after balls, chewed on ropes, and rolled around on our living room floor with aidan...it was perfect! that night she slept like an angel for about 2 hours then it was chaos she was up every hour crying, so sad but we got through it (we read that was normal for puppies). monday was a different story we got home to diarrhea, that continued the whole night plus vomiting and then we found worms in her stool. so tuesday morning we took her to the vet who after laying eyes on her told us "she's bad, she's really sick!". charlie was severely dehydrated since she was such a tiny thing not holding down anything (we had to force feed her the day before), the vet told us she needed to go to a 24 hour hospital if we wanted to keep her alive. the seriousness in the vets voice and the words that came out of his mouth filled us with fear for so many reasons: what did we do wrong? is she going to make it? how are we going to pay for this? how did petco not see this? at the hospital we got a diagnoses; charlie had parvo and it was killing her, they told us she had a 10% chance of surviving...wtf!? tears, fear, anger, stress, and anxiety took over what was going on? were we about to lose our baby 48 hours after bringing her into our family? i felt a massive amount of guilt, thinking where did we go wrong but the doctor assured me this had nothing to do with us, if anything we were saving her life...charlie was given to us with parvo. 10% chance of living? how could it get any worse? "your total is $3,600" oh please hold while i check my trust fund, oh that's right i don't have one. our only option at that point was to apply for care credit which covered $2,500 just to save her life and hold her over until i could get in touch with petco because something wasn't right. so while jack was in touch and in charge of charlie at the vet it was my job to get in touch with petco and make sure they helped us take care of charlie. a few hours after submitting my initial complaint i got a call from the petco district manager who was kind but told me our main concern should be charlie's health that we'd worry about money later; that made me feel like shit, what a terrible person i was to call about money when we had a dying dog. her tactic worked until 12am on sunday morning when we went to go visit our pup and were hit with "your total is $3,900, your care credit is for $2,500 so we need $1,400"! who has that money just sitting around, not us that's for sure, what is going on!? we love charlie and that's why we are going through all measures to get her back to life but we didn't sign up for this! charlie was supposed to have been in good health not fighting for her life with this deadly disease when we adopted her; now we are stuck clearing out our bank accounts because of petco's negligence! "worry about charlie, then money" we are petco; hence her hospital stay, now us feeding her through tubes, giving her iv treatment in our living room, forcing meds down her throat...we are, but it's not fair we need help! so there is that status with our little princess! thank you everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and love notes for charlie. any puppy of mine is obviously a fighter so we know she'll get through this and once she's all better she'll shower you with slobbery kisses and lots of cuddles!!!