Petey hadn’t seen his mother in such a long time that sometimes he found it hard to remember her. He remembered how she would snuggle with him, how she would kiss and hug him, and watch with pride as he played and slept. He missed that.

Even though she was in the past, he still thought of her and tried his best to stay happy. But it was hard for him. It seemed such an effort for him to try and be cheerful. He liked where he lived now, but he still wished someone would come, look at him, smile, and take him home.

Today was Saturday. Petey loved Saturdays. It was the day families would come looking to take a companion home. Maybe today it would be him.

Every Saturday Petey would awake to the excitement and the hope, the thought of finding a home would bring. Petey would pace up and down, waiting and wishing today would be the day.

Last Saturday his friend, Larry the Labrador found a home. That family had a little girl who couldn’t wait to get home to put that collar around his neck. But the little girl was so elated, she put it on him so Larry wore it out the door, his chest pumped with pride. Petey as happy for him but sad for himself.

Petey thought today would be different. But this is what he thought every Saturday.He was on his best behavior these days, like every other day of being positive, strutting up and down in his pen, chest inflated, eyes and smile sparkling and beaming.

Every time they saw him, they would hurry past, shielding their kids as if protecting them. From what, Petey didn’t know. But at the end of the day, Petey would remain at the shelter while one or two of his buddies went home in the arms of a smiling, happy, loving family euphoric over the new addition to their happy home.

This weighed heavily upon Petey. He didn’t understand. Why didn’t people like him? After this Saturday, Petey rested his head in his paws, spread out before him, his eyes glistening with tears as the family let the door close behind them.

“Why so glum, chum?” Petey looked up and saw Corky the Cocker Spaniel. Corky was always so nice to him. Corky never got chosen either. It was said because she was too old. But everyone at the shelter loved her as did Petey.

“Why can’t I go home with someone? Why do they always avoid me? What’s wrong with me?”

“Don’t you like it here?” asked Corky.

“Of course, I do,” said Petey, “but I’d like to go home with a family, like Larry did.”

“Ahh,” said Corky, “so you want to be chosen.”

“Yeah. Is that wrong?”

“No, of course not. Everyone deserves to be happy, but you must remember, if your happiness depends on others, it may not happen. Sometimes you have to find that happiness within.”

Corky’s words did little to comfort Petey. He just sank back to the floor, paws holding his sad-eyed head.

___________________

Not far from Petey, Parveen Pasha sat in her bedroom on the edge of her bed, her eyes sad, her body slumped. Her room was filled with trophies and awards; science fair blue ribbons, medals in physics and math, letters of congratulations from state officials for essay contests. Yes, her room was filled with everything from her accomplishments to her music andbooks; everything but friends.Her Facebook page claimed thirty-eight friends, but mostly relatives including her mother and father, not to mention cousins she had never even met in Iraq and Pakistan.

Outside her window, she could see and hear the kids in her school and her class running about playing and teasing one another, but her doorbell never rang with an invitation to come out and play. How she wished that would happen, but it never did.

In the kitchen, Mr. and Mrs. Pasha sat over coffee discussing their daughter.

“I don’t understand why she’s so sad all the time.It’s like a funeral every time I speak with her,” said her father.

“She’s lonely,” said his wife.

“How can that be?”

“She has no friends.”

“That’s ridiculous. She attends school, the public school where you insisted she go.She should be attending school at the Mosque. That’s where she belongs. She would have friends there.”

“Now, who’s being ridiculous?”

“What do you mean? I think that’s the problem right there, the school, the public school.”

“We’re Americans now, Patel. Americans. She must assimilate as we did.”

“Nonsense, Priam, we will not give up our heritage.”

“No one is saying we should. We attend prayer, she studies her history at the center, and we encourage that. But this is our home now. She – we – have to understand that.”

“We can – and we must assimilate without sacrificing our culture.”

“Agreed. But it hurts me so much to see her in such agony. Why can’t she make any friends?”

“She’s very shy and self-conscious. And these traits may be taken wrong by her peers. But I say if she can’t make friends, we will attain them for her, even if we have to buy them.”

“Buy?”

Priam didn’t answer, she simply sipped her coffee and smiled.

_______________________

It was Saturday again. All his shelter mates were prim and proper waiting to be picked.Oh, Petey got shampooed, cut, and trimmed, but for the first time, Saturday was just another day for him.His hopes vanishing along with his dreams.

Corky noticed his demeanor. “Still glum?”

Petey barely lifted his head to turn it towards Corky, but no words came out.

“It’s Saturday. This could be your day.”

Finally, Petey came up with the words. ‘It’s just another day and they’re all the same. It will never by THE DAY for me. Never.”

As the first families entered through the front door, Petey slipped to the back of his pen, where he lied down, resting his head on his stretched-out paws, tears sliding down his face.

______________________

Parveen was in her bedroom getting dressed with the help of her mother. She turned at every request of her mother to move the fitting along. As Priam adjusted her Thawab, Parveen continued to fidget.

“Hold still, Parveen.”

Her mother continued with dressing her daughter. They both decided on wearing the Salwar underneath; more comfortable. Her father would be pleased with their decision and would be able to accept their leaving off the Abaya.

“Why do I have to dress like this, Mama? We’re only going to the center.”

“We are doing this to please your father.”

“Father?”

“Yes, your father.”

“Why? It’s not the mosque, it’s the center.”

“Shh, trust your mother. I know what I’m doing because I know your father.”

Parveen decided to do just that, trust her mother.Usually, Parveen loved dressing traditionally. The clothes were so beautiful, so elegant, and made her feel so special. She was proud of her heritage, but it wasn’t garnering her many friends.

Because when she did dress up, the other kids gave her such strange looks. It made her feel uncomfortable. So now something that she loved to do made her so self-conscious, that now she wished there would be no kids outside when she went to the car.

At the center, everyone praised Parveen and how pretty she looked wearing her traditional garb. Her father just doted, his chest popping with pride. Parveen attended prayer, her religious studies and shared a buffet of customary Pakistani food; lamb biryani, tandoori chicken, aloo paratta, and then her favorite, to satisfy a teenage girl’s sweet tooth; piles of kheer and halwa.

But what really made her day was the fact that her father looked upon her with such pride and not the sadness tat has been carved on his face recently. And her mother had this look on her face; a look that told her everything was going to be alright.

_______________________

Back at the shelter, Petey hoped his initial thoughts were wrong that his highly anticipated Saturdays had returned to being just another day. He lay back in the deep recesses and shadows of his pen and watched the stream of families and others glide by him without even a small glance. The sadness was almost too much for him to bear. A quiet peek at the clock told him he only had a few more minutes to suffer.

Without much fanfare, another family found its way through the door. Odd?They were dressed very differently, this man, woman, and child. They were browsing the different pens and reading the small placards each cage sported; a brief history of the occupant minimized down to a three by five index card.

As they walked and examined, it looked as though the girl was totally excited about the prospects of attaining a new family member.Then something strange happened.After reading Petey’s placard, the man vehemently shook his head ‘no’, while the young girl pleaded with him.The woman gently placed a hand on the man’s arm and he almost immediately calmed down, and they gave his daughter a single nod of his head.

Parveen, with a huge smile on her face, went to Petey’s cage, knelt down in front of it and, began trying to coax Petey to the front.

Petey saw all this and the pretty young girl dressed in the strange clothes kneeling down attempting to get his attention.

Slowly, Petey approached the girl, her parents looming over her in the background. Tentatively he reached the front, where she stuck her fingers through the mesh. The parents shuddered. Petey sniffed the fingers, top and bottom.

Then without warning all of his inhibitions about Saturdays vanished in one fell swoop. He began licking her fingers and wagging his tail. The tears dried up taking the sad face with them.

One of the attendants came over and opened his cage door, and Petey melted into the arms of Parveen, licking her face, his tail wagging non-stop.

“But this is a Pit Bull, have you not read about them?They are a vicious breed. They can be very dangerous. This would not be my first choice for our daughter.”

Priam turned a very patient eye to her husband.“Patel, it’s the love that counts.We become who we are through love and understanding. Besides, you were not the first choice of my parents either.”

“That’s all well and good, but – what? I wasn’t your parents’ first choice?”

“No, you weren’t.”

“But your parents adore me.”

“Yes, now they do.”

“But – “

“Shh, Patel, it all worked out. Love, Patel, love is the key. And it will work out here also. Now, let’s go home.”

“This will not guarantee her school chums will become her friends.”

“Of course not. But it will guarantee her at least one friend who will give her love and understanding,” Priam said looking down at the love fest between Parveen and Petey.

As all four walked away, Patel spoke once more. “Who was their first choice?”

Priam just smiled and kept walking.

“It was that Javeesh boy, wasn’t it? I never did like him.”

“Neither did I,” said Priam, entwining her arm through husband’s as they headed to the door. Parveen never let Petey’s paws touch the ground.