Bonus Chapter: The Rainbow After the Storm

A few months after Moon passed away, the same rescue reached out and said they had just found a puppy that reminded them of her.

In the early morning, a barely 4 week old puppy wondered across the street and strolled up to the rescue all by herself. No mom and no littermates to be found. This was a few months before my marriage ended, and before I put together the full pieces of Severus' betrayal.

For the next few days, photos and videos came of the puppy daily. Playing tug-o-war with other doggies, running around in the grass, chomping down her breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then came a question. What should she be named? I responded almost right away. Rainbow.

I knew, but I didn't fully understand in naming her that I would feel immense responsibility for her. But really afterwards, I couldn't help but look forwards to Rainbow's daily update. And soon starting to make arrangements for her to make the journey to the U.S.

At that point, Severus and I were already in couples counseling, but at the time, didn't think it our marriage wasn't going to be repairable. Of course Severus already knew, and was actively abandoning me. It was a challenging time, but Severus claimed that he wanted to make things right, and of course, as I had no idea to the extent of his lies. Also Beauty was still alive, and having two dogs again was daunting, especially with one being a puppy. Severus promised that he would help as he really wanted another dog already.

So, I made an agreement with him. If our marriage didn't make it, Rainbow would be mine, and Severus would keep Beauty. I wouldn't agree to adopting Rainbow otherwise. Severus agreed.

At four months old, Rainbow made her journey across the ocean from Taiwan to the U.S. and from the first moment I met her, I was greeted with her warm, happy demeanor. Rainbow flew out her crate and immediately started bouncing around, licking faces, and waging tail, wanting to eat and play. It was a stark different to both Moon and Beauty who were far more timid and reserved upon arrival, despite all hailing from the same rescue as Rainbow. Seemingly Rainbow didn't mind where she was as long as there was food, people, doggies, and play-time to be had.

Rainbow was different. When Beauty had arrived several years prior, she was so reserved that she had to be coaxed for almost an hour to leave the corner by the door. She also would hide behind trees and tables at the dog park to avoid other dogs and people. Beauty didn't even care for toys. Beauty was already almost 2 when she arrived, but Moon was just 4 months. Moon however had separation anxiety after being separated from her mom and brother Sun. After arriving, Moon would follow Beauty around like it was a lifelong game of follow the leader. If you tried to separate Moon from Beauty, she would have a full doggie breakdown. Rainbow loved to play, and didn't care who she was with. She would snuggle or play with anyone who was there with her.

Rainbow was just in the moment - all the time. She didn't seem to worry about the past or future, but lived wholly in the present. This trait made it easy to adapt to a whole new life in a new country, but made it incredibly difficult to train her. Rainbow was much more difficult to train than Beauty or Moon. When Rainbow had to potty, she'd go in the middle of playing with her toys or running around. You could train her, to do a trick pretty quickly, but she couldn't remember the next day what she'd learned the day prior. Her energy levels were through the roof, and she played more creatively than I had ever seen Moon or Beauty. Moon could never really learn puzzle toys, and Beauty didn't ever really care for toys. Rainbow mastered them all, and then was bored. When I would walk Rainbow, she needed to greet everyone - every person and dog, or she'd start whining. It was completely opposite of the reserved nature of Taiwan dogs.

Something was different about her and I struggled to adapt to her extreme extroversion as an extreme introvert. I wanted another Taiwan dog because they are typically introverts, but Rainbow was not, and it was very challenging for me.

A few weeks after her arrival, seemingly out of nowhere, Rainbow got sick. She started to have an upset tummy, and needed to go out multiple times a day and night. By this time, she thankfully had learned to go to the door to ask to go out and only had very minimal accidents in the house. But she needed supervision and I quickly learned that Severus' "help" was just like all of his other promises. Non-existent. He only wanted to do the fun parts- feed her, show her off to friends at work, and play with her, but when she was sick, she was "my dog." Not once did he get up, or even offer to help take her out. He had work in the morning, he was tired, he had to go hangout with friends, she was mine anyway, the excuses went on.

Severus had no intention of truely being there for me when things got difficult, and vis-a-vis, he had not intention on helping Rainbow. I gave up asking.

It took about a week and a half for her to get better after getting medicine from the vet. And once she was better, she was back bouncing off the walls. So I wouldn't need Severus's help anymore, I enrolled in her in daycare once I had to return to work. Rainbow loved it.

The daycare's only feedback - she runs and runs too much and is hard to catch. Typical Rainbow.

Moon and her "Pupchino"

Sometime afterwards, I eventually learned of Severus's other lies and misconduct, and I began to see a lot of support in Rainbow's story.

By Valentine's Day, my curiosity was bubbling over. Rainbow was just too different than my previous Taiwan dogs, and I needed to know her heritage in the hopes that it would help me better train her. So as an early birthday / valentine's present for Rainbow, I bought a doggy genetic test. I was fairly certain that she was not 100% Taiwan dog, as her personality was too extroverted, but I thought she'd be part Taiwan and maybe pitbull. But what I found was truly shocking.

Rainbow was 0% Taiwan dog. Instead she was 100% American Village Dog and was native to Central and South America and the Caribbean. I was aghast. That couldn't be right as she came on a direct flight from Taiwan. And all her paperwork was from Taiwan, the rescue was in Taiwan, Right? At the same time as Rainbow's test, I also did Beauty's, which came back 100% FMD/Taiwan Dog. Both pups were from the same region and even the rescue! I reached back out to the rescue and they were just as shocked and confused as I was. However, everyone agreed that this was not a happy story. Not a single person could imagine a happy scenario that led to Rainbow ended up in a completely different country, alone, without a mom or siblings. She wasn't even fully weaned when she wondered up alone to the rescue. Yet, from meeting Rainbow, she just radiates positivity and joy. Moon and Beauty, always had some issues, stimming from their history. But I don't see as much of that in Rainbow. Somehow the trauma seemed to mostly just bounce off of her.

I hope that one day, I can see my childhood and marriage in a way that doesn't impede my joy in the moment. I hope to live the rest of life as happily as Rainbow despite my history. Rainbow teaches me more joy everyday and I'm glad that she is my current teacher and companion on this journey called life.