The shelter is huge and has an eerily somber ambiance. Walking in, Kit is greeted with a long gray hallway with solid doors along the walls and a large set of glass doors at the far end. Walking further into the building, she notices large images of sad animals hung on the walls and a plaque next to each door. Some plaques have animal indicators, such as "Bunnies" and "Cats", and some simply say "Staff Only."

As she walks down the hall, the barking gets progressively louder, this leads her to assume that the dogs are kept in the back. Reaching the glass door, she pushes it open and hesitantly walks through, having yet to see a worker to talk to.

The area through the doors is a small courtyard with cement paving and a small grassy area in the middle with 3 medium sized scattered trees. Glancing around, Kit notices the walls are lined with identical, small cubicles holding 1-3 dogs each. Taking a left, she slowly begins to walk around and observe their living spaces. Each cubicle is made of cement, the back wall having a small opening, big enough for the dogs to go through for interior housing. The front barrier, closest to visitors, is a simple chain-link fence. Some spaces had blankets and others had stuffed toys, but all had just one visible water and food dish.

Kit wanders around, ears going numb with the persistent barking, when she gets to a cage confining three small dogs. Two are excitedly yipping and jumping at her while the third is laying in a corner with its head on its paws, eyeing her. The three dogs all have similar physical characteristics: small bodies with long caramel brown fur and upright triangle shaped ears.

Kit turns her head towards the depressed looking dog in the corner, it notices this and lifts its head as its tail slowly begins to thump the ground behind it. There is nothing extraordinarily special about the dog, but it has captured her attention and heart.

(the toy and environment in the image don't correlate to the story, this is only to visualize the dog)

Having made up her mind, she turns heel and walks back into the building, reluctantly leaving the dog to try and find someone to talk to. She purposefully walks down the hall and notices a large glass window embedded in the wall across that of the main entrance. The bottom of the window starts just above Kit's waist with a counter sticking out and a small opening just above it.

"How did I miss that?" She whispers to herself. Approaching the counter, she notices a bell with a note "ring for assistance" and so she does. Moments pass and an employee appears behind the window, wearing a face mask and black ball cap.

"How may I help you?" A deep, soothing voice comes from the employee, startling Kit a little, but she quickly gets a hold of herself.

"I am interested in a dog here and would like to interact with it."

"Sure, do you know which canine?" Kit pauses, a confused look plastered across her face as she tries to recall if there were name plates for the dogs.

"It was a smallish, uhh, long-haired dog with light brown hair and large black eyes. He's about this big and may possibly be depressed?" She tries in a sincere attempt to describe the dog with gestures from memory, failing miserably.

The worker gives a confused head tilt and raises a single eyebrow before stepping out from behind the counter. "Could you show me?" As he walks towards her, Kit is taken aback by how tall he is, towering over her.

Once again, she quickly regains herself and responds. "That is an excellent idea." Leading him to the dog's enclosure, she points out the dog in its same, sad position.

"Oh, that is canine #462." He mentions casually, as though it's ok to not give an animal an actual name. Not to mention how disturbingly high that number is. While staring at the dog who was staring back at her, the worker had disappeared into the building. Some noise could be heard through the small opening behind the dogs as all three got up and disappeared through it. Moments later, the worker appears with canine #462 calmly being held in his arms before he sets the dog down in front of her.

"Let me know when you're done interacting with him, I'll be right here." He steps away and stands with his back against the glass doors to give Kit space to become acquainted with the dog.

Focusing all her attention on the small animal before her, she slowly kneels down and holds out a closed fist. The dog yips once at her before approaching to smell her hand, he quickly becomes attached and circles her with his tail wagging incessantly. A smile spreads across her face as he allows her to pet his soft head. She scoops up the dog and walks towards the employee.

"What's the process I need to go through to adopt a dog?"

—

The door to Kit's apartment swings open as a small ball of fluff rushes in to immediately explore the area, his tail wagging at light speed. A giggle escapes her at the adorable sight as she walks into her room to quickly change into home clothes. When she returns and sits on the couch, the dog immediately rushes and jumps up to sit next to her as he cuddles into her side.

"So, little man, I got all your information when I adopted you but it doesn't seem like much. You're a male mixed pomeranian, about one and a half years old, which I've learned is about the age of a young adult in dog years. Being house trained is a weight off my shoulders, so I know you won't pee everywhere or destroy the place. But you have never been named." Kit's mouth turns down in a frown. "Let's fix that right now." The dog jumps up and onto the floor, spinning in front of her, seemingly excited.

"Hmm a name, a name for such a smart and friendly dog. A dog acting as my ticket out of a boring and lonely life. My sunshine. My hope." She trails off in thought, playing with pronunciations in her head before landing on an appealing name. "How about Hoseok? Hobi for short." He jumps up and down, yipping as his tail speeds up, which seems impossible.

"I'm glad you like it." A warm smile spreads across her face. "Alright then Hobi, welcome to your new home."

After acquainting themselves with each other and eating a simple, dog friendly dinner, they spend the rest of the day lounging around the house. Kit lays out a fluffy blanket on the floor for Hobi to sleep on if he doesn't join her in her bed, which he didn't.

—

The weekend began with Kit attempting to catch up on missed sleep from the week, but failing miserably. Her new companion decided to lovingly wake her up at 6 in the morning by tugging her blanket off of her. She cracks open an eye slightly to assess the situation and can see Hobi sitting in the doorway on the stolen blanket.

Catching her gaze, Hobi lets out a loud 'good morning' bark which startles the recently awoken female. Her head raises as she squints at Hobi in a playful glare, to which he barks again and wags his tail.

"Ok fiiiine." A groan escapes Kit as she rolls over and swings her legs over the edge of her bed, stretching. "I'll spend the very early morning with you." She trudges into the kitchen, almost falling because of a small dog excitedly running between her legs.

"You are definitely a morning perso- dog. You are a morning dog." Kit runs her hand through her hair as she begins to cook up some eggs and sausages for breakfast. After googling foods safe for dogs she rolls a bit onto a separate plate for her companion. "I need to get you a food dish; a bed, collar and leash would be good too."

After they enjoy an early breakfast together, Kit gets herself ready to go on a walk with Hobi. Dressed in a light sweater and jeans, she checks to ensure she has her phone and keys before picking up and holding Hobi in her arms. She had done research the night before on dog parks and discovered one within walking distance from her house.

It was about a 10 minute walk, she held Hobi the entire time to keep him from running into the street accidentally. When they reached the park, they saw a large open grassy area with trees and about 7 other dogs with their owners. Along the left side were concrete picnic tables, not to Kit's liking. Walking over to a tree, she sits on the grass in the shade and sets Hobi loose.

He was not very enthusiastic at first, coming across as timid and nervous, like when Kit first found him at the shelter. However, he quickly got used to the environment and began to run around and interact with other dogs, never leaving Kit's sight. Whenever he thinks he might've gone too far, he would stop and look around, making sure she was still there and he could see her.

Sometimes he would run over to Kit and sit in her lap for a minute or two before running back to be with the other dogs. At one point, Hobi came over to her and never ran back out. His breathing was heavy as she took him into her arms and walked back home.

As they arrive back home, Kit checks her phone to see that the trip as a whole took just over an hour. She sets Hobi down inside her house and sets a weekend morning alarm for 6:30.

Looks like she just developed a new morning routine.

Happy Earth Day !

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