January was young when she married, well, young in her opinion because she had been 23 years old. Now approaching 30, she and her husband wanted a baby but after her recent miscarriage she wasn't sure about that anymore. Since her husband hadn't been there for her like she needed him to be during the miscarriage, she didn't know if trying again would be a good idea. To try and make things better between them, her husband brought January to the local animal shelter to adopt a dog. You see, he thought bringing a dog into their home would cheer her up.
When they got to the shelter, January was at a loss for words. How could her husband think that a dog could replace what she had lost? She didn't want to fight so she begrudgingly went in to see the dogs up for adoption. She wandered around up and down the rows looking at all the sad faces. She came to a kennel and in the back of it was what looked like a golden retriever puppy. The puppy lifted its head and January called it over. "Hi sweetie, you sure are cute," she said. Her husband came around the corner and saw what January was doing. "That dog will get too big! Look at the size of its paws!" He said.
January ignored him and got up and went to the counter at the shelter and asked to see the puppy out of its kennel. January followed the kennel attendant and when the puppy was in January's arms, she asked,"What can you tell me about this puppy?" "Well, the kennel attendant said, "that puppy is a male golden retriever, about 12 weeks old, and he was rescued from a puppy mill with 6 of his siblings. The family that was fostering him weren't able to keep him due to an unexpected death in the family, so they brought him back to our shelter to be adopted out. He has been here for a couple of weeks."
January looked into the puppy's eyes and wondered why no one had adopted him yet. At that moment, the puppy licked her on the nose and from that moment, she knew she had to have him. "I'll take him," she said. January went up to the counter so they could start the adoption process. When she and her husband, along with their new puppy, arrived home, January wanted to name him right away. Her husband said,"I don't care what its name is, you are the one who picked him out so it's up to you." January decided that Jake would do nicely as a name for their new family member.
