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The Drunk Dad Diaries (Excerpt #21)
When my dad gets drunk, he likes to buy random things we don't need and sing his liver out. During one of these drunken nights, my dad ended up bringing home a puppy. A sweet, green eyed, caramel coated pitbull. She had soft, red swollen rings around her eyes, as if she somehow knew she had to leave the litter at two weeks old and had been crying the whole night before. Bringing home a surprise like this caused mixed feelings within our household, because my dad never consulted such a purchase with my mom, but my brother and I were ecstatic. We always wanted a dog but were never able to own one, because my mom had a tendency to hate any living thing with fur on it. However, the cuteness of this puppy was hard to resist, even for my mom. I ended up naming her Scotch. No, it wasn't short for Butterscotch, but for scotch whiskey. When I first saw her and her caramel coat, the first thing that came to my head was, "Wow, she looks like a bottle of Grierson's No.1!" I was 12. This could've been a wake up call for my dad, but all he said was,"Alright, have fun with Scotch!" Oh yeah, he was definitely drunk when he bought the dog.
Growing up with an alcoholic dad when I was in elementary school is what inspired me to write. My dad is 3 years sober now, but what I wanted people to get out of this piece is to show what it's like to love someone who is an alcoholic and how bittersweet it can be sometimes.