It was the time of the year when it snows, rains and freezes all in one day. And this was one of those days.

My boyfriend Mike and I were heading to Salem, New York. We were on our way to get our now two-year-old black lab.

The gray trailer sat on the side of the highway.  There were chickens, a big beagle and a very big lab running around the yard. But this was not any other trailer. This trailer had our soon-to-be puppy inside. The owner of the home invited us in. It was almost pitch black inside.

Stranger plus random trailer on the side of the highway plus dark room … I felt like I have seen this in a horror film before.

Mike picked up the dog, and he held onto it so tight.

By just looking at them, you could see the plans, and future Mike had for him. You just knew that this pup was going to be his shadow. We got back into the truck and just looked at his dog in awe. It almost looked like he glowed. It was love at first sight.

Then Things Took a Turn

For some reason, Google Maps thought it was best to bring us home on back roads. May I remind you of the kind of day this was.

This day went from raining to sleeting and then freezing temperatures.

We started to go down the dirt road and we began to slide.

The road was covered in ice.

This also was the moment Mike decided to tell me that his tires weren’t the best and he needed new ones, but everything will be okay.

They were bald, very bald.

I tried to hold on to his optimism as strong as I held on to our dog.

I couldn’t let anything wrong happen to this brown-eyed pup. I just couldn’t.

We slid side to side across the road, and all I could think of is hitting the trees on either side.

But every time I looked down at my dog, I smiled and felt so much joy despite knowing if we lose control of the truck, well, who knows what could happen.

Joy.

Fear.

Happiness.

More fear.

Look how cute he is and – watch out for that tree!

I went back in forth as I looked down at the puppy, whose paws are bigger than his head, and did I mention how beautiful those brown eyes are?

I felt all sorts of emotions as we slid all over the road that felt miles long.

I just wanted to get home safe.

Out of the Woods

We made it onto roads without any ice. We were definitely lucky as we thought we were looking death in the eye at some points.

An hour or so later, we were home. We were safe and had our dog, who we named Bentley in the Petco parking lot when we stopped 15 minutes before closing.

We finally felt a sense of relief.

We could breathe.

Others weren’t too pleased when we tried to sneak a puppy into the house. But I’ll save that story for another time.