The Story of Cabela
By Megan Farley
Grade 10
Washburn District School
When I was six I begged my parents for a puppy. At first I wanted a small dog like a Chihuahua or a Pomeranian, but when I was 7 or 8, I decided I wanted a larger dog like a Pit Bull, Great Dane, or Timber Wolf/Siberian Husky mix.
My parents, however, wouldn’t allow me to have any dog that could eat a small child. At the age of 9 the hope of getting another dog had died out. When I turned 10 that all changed. I was determined to get a dog at that point. I didn’t care what breed or how big it was, I just wanted a dog. I would beg my parents every single night to let me have one but they stayed firm, telling me I wasn’t responsible enough or that I would lose interest.
I remember coming home one day after school. I sat on the floor next to my dad while he played “Call of Duty.” He paused the game and asked me how badly I wanted a dog. At first I thought he was joking. He told me he would make a deal with me. He said if I trained and took care of the puppy, we would get one. I promised him I would as I jumped up and hugged him.
Later that day, sometime after supper, we went to Heather Doody’s house to pick out the new puppy. I can remember on the way there I kept asking what breed it was, but my parents said I would have to wait and see. When we arrived at Heather’s house, I was the first one to scramble out of the truck. Heather answered the door and we followed her to her living room. There was a puppy pen filled with tiny squirming puppies. There was this one that caught my eye. She had a mohawk on her nose and she would not stop squealing. I knew that was the puppy I wanted. My dad told me I would have to wait six weeks before I could take her home.
Every weekend, I would beg dad to take me to go see the puppies. Those were the longest six weeks of my life.
One day when I came home from school, I was greeted by my new puppy. She had a pink camo collar and a red ribbon wrapped around her waist. The first thing my mom told me was I had to give her a name. After about two hours of going through names, I decided to name her Libby, but there was a problem with that. We have a dog named Abbie. Libby and Abbie were just too similar, so after a few weeks of calling her Libby, I changed her name to Cabela, just like the hunting store. Later, she became our hunting dog.
