This week’s discussion sparks off of Amanda’s short story revolving around a pet owner’s lack of responsibility. What would YOU do if your pet needed you, but you simply didn’t have the time?
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Welcome to Smirk. A podcast that covers society and culture through a storytelling lens. Part creative writing, part discussion, and always interesting. Each week our hosts brings a story to the show, a story they wrote themselves, which is immediately followed by discussion on the author’s moral or theme.
These stories can cover any topic the host wants to discuss, it can be lighthearted or more serious. No one but the author knows if these tales are truth or fiction, and part of the fun is guessing while you’re listening before the reality is made clear.
We want to hear from you! If you want to share YOUR story, join the conversation by writing in to mystory@smirkpodcast.com, and include your moral, or you can let us guess at it. This is the podcast that looks at truth, fiction, and reality. With a Smirk.
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Want to read Amanda’s story “Sheltered” in full? Think you can identify the moral or theme for this episode? Read it below, and then take a listen to the podcast.
Sheltered
It started off strong, Julie and I’s relationship. We always knew we’d be together in the long run and we never really questioned if we should or shouldn’t be together; we just did it. We both supported each other’s dreams, but they fell hand and hand together pretty well anyway. She wanted to start her own business but dealing with people, and I wanted to run a business.
With the success of our local restaurant, we began to consider other future plans. “We’re doing well with this adventure, maybe it’s time we find another one”, we thought. This led us to beautiful garbage disposals – or as society calls them… babies. We always knew we wanted to have kids someday, we just never decided when. Turns out “someday” happened to be “now”, and we were ecstatic to be parents. Another adventure together, another segment of memories together – an addition to our family. So this is the part of the story where miss Emily showed up. She was an easy going baby, honestly. We didn’t have trouble with her sleeping schedule very much. So, we decided to get a puppy, with our baby in the house.
Binx was the sweetest thing you’d imagine. He had the beautiful fur coat that made you wanna snuggle, the pretty puppy eyes that roped you in, and the cutest little tail wag. We found him at our local shelter – he was in need from his owner who turned him in because they weren’t ready for a dog. Turns out, neither were we.
A couple of months later, we got an offer to expand our business. Instead of one location, we had the opportunity to have three. It was everything we hoped and worked hard for; we couldnt say no. With the change in schedules, lack of sleep, and presence of Binx, we had to change the way we did things. Binx created more chaos and noise causing Emily to be fussy all of the time, so that didn’t help.
But then… We got pregnant again. I know – why would you risk it? Well shame on us, because now we have another on the way. Don’t get me wrong, we’re excited, but we’re losing energy. We finally had to come to a resolve – change the business, hire a nanny, or send Binx to the shelter again. “We just can’t keep doing this”, Julie would say. I agreed with her, it just made me sad.
We mulled over the decision for another almost two weeks, and then we decided to do it. We said goodbye to Binx and haven’t seen him since.
Now, listen to the full episode as we dissect Amanda’s story.