So you may be wondering “Who on earth is Mattie May, and why are you writing a blog about her being here to stay?” Well, this is my last semester of my undergraduate college career and shortly after it began my boyfriend of nearly a year broke up with me. I took it pretty hard. Most of my friends have already graduated, I don’t have a job, and I only have classes 3 days a week so I had entirely too much time to sit around and mope. One of the things missed the most was going over to his house to play with his dog Jada, so I decided that it was about time for me to have a dog of my own!
Mattie has a somewhat complicated history. My friend’s mom and sister found her on a country road in Abingdon Virginia, where she had been hit by a car (I think?). They took her to the vet and got her the surgeries she needed and took her home. When my friend’s sister got married, she took Mattie into her new family. This change of scenery was short lived, though, because when she had her daughter and split up with her husband, she realized it was too much to take care of both a dog and a baby as a single mom. So Mattie was sent back to live with my friend’s dad (who is now single; his wife passed away from cancer).
I mentioned to my friend that I was looking to adopt a dog. We both had plans to go to our own homes the following weekend, and while we were both at home he asked me if I'd like to try out one of the 4 dogs he had at home. I said I'd see if Mattie would be a good match, and he brought her to JMU. At first, I was pretty skeptical that I would like Mattie because she was kind of what I consider to be a "wussy" breed. (After all, I was used to being around a bully breed type of dog). However, as the first week went by and Mattie and I got to know one another better, I realized she and I were going to get along just fine.
