My name is Rafa from giraffe (I’m 4 years old), because I’m the only one of 8 long-legged brothers. As you can see in the picture, I don’t particularly like being tall. Those people who have been laughed at all their lives for being TOO tall, or at least taller than their peers, know what I’m talking about.

I’d like to be dumpy and easy to fit in your purse, like my brothers are. But my loved ones at the shelter tell me I shouldn’t be ashamed or insecure because I don’t look like the others. On the contrary, they tell me I’m special, that I’m cute as a button, that I have a funny walk like a bug on stilts, and most of all, they tell me I deserve to be loved and that I should love myself first.

But it’s so hard for me to love myself, oof… It would be much, much easier for me if I had a family of my own to show me every day what it feels like to get that feeling that I only know how to give, but not how to give myself: love. It would be so much easier if I were your puppy.