Fathers cuddling with their beloved pets are a big hit on any social media platform, especially when the caption is “Dad with the dog he didn’t want.” Sometimes an addition to the family just takes a little bit of convincing—perhaps in the form of a PowerPoint presentation or handwritten letter.
In honor of Father’s Day, we found some Frederick pet dads who weren’t too enthusiastic about their furry companions at first but now wouldn’t live life any other way.
‘Yes, We Can Keep Her’
Johanie Parra and her family had fostered dogs in their Ijamsville home for years. Especially during the pandemic, Parra, her husband, David Faul, and two daughters housed foster puppies totaling in the double digits.
One stood out from the rest to Parra: a pitbull boxer mix named Riley.
“There was just something about her,” Parra recalls. “I immediately, I will say, fell in love.”
As of 2022, the family already had two senior dogs at home, but that didn’t stop Parra from wanting to add to the pack.
“I kind of started to put it in Dave’s ear, like, ‘I really like her; maybe we should get a third one,’” Parra says of Riley. “Or, ‘I don’t know, I kind of want to keep this one.’ He was super against it.”
Always the “voice of reason,” Faul wanted to focus on the family’s current pets and avoid the additional veterinary costs and responsibilities of raising a puppy. But Parra didn’t want to part with Riley: “I think I want to adopt her,” she told her husband.
Parra’s daughters, now ages 11 and 15, were on her side, agreeing, “Dad, we should keep her.”
“No, she’s going to find a good home,” Faul had replied. “Three dogs is a lot.”
One tearful day prompted Faul to agree to think about it. Within 24 hours, he’d had a conversation with the girls and given them an assignment: “If you guys really think Riley is the one for our family, I need you to give me reasons why,” he told them.
The animal-loving girls wrote letters and presented them to Faul.
“Each of our daughters … stated various cute factors,” Parra says. “My 7-year-old was like, ‘Because she’s really cute,’ ‘she’s great entertainment.’”
Finally, Faul yielded, and Parra jumped on the paperwork needed to give Riley her forever home. Parra trained, fed and walked the puppy, sometimes in the middle of the night. So, it was a surprise to her to learn that Riley, now 3 years old, favored her dad.
“She’s more attached to Dave,” Parra says. “She knows Dad’s the playful one that will play with her.”
Faul, in turn, has completely changed his tune about Riley.
“Now, Dave baby-talks her when he comes in, and he gives her extra treats,” Parra says.
He even cooks breakfast for Riley: eggs and blueberries. When the two are cuddled up on the couch, Parra often jokes to the mutt, “Your dad didn’t even want you, and you love him more.”
‘A Little Bit of Nudging’
Marc Cangemi and his wife, Beth, had always had dogs even before their marriage. But equines are where he drew the line.
“No, we’re not getting horses,” the Frederick father had said.
The Cangemis already had a German shorthaired pointer and a snake, and Marc Cangemi wasn’t looking to create a menagerie. Their now 16-year-old daughter, McKenna, wanted a horse, as she had been an equestrian since the age of 5.
“No, it’s too expensive,” her dad had said for years.
McKenna figured it would be less costly to invest in fencing, a barn-like structure, food, hay and vet bills for a horse compared to her brother’s travel hockey expenses, so she ran the numbers.
“Every time a new animal has come to her interest, she has always presented us with a PowerPoint presentation of the cost, the care, all the ins and outs of this animal that she wants,” Beth Cangemi says.
That’s how the family ended up with two horses, a mini horse, chickens, a snake and, at one point, rabbits. Marc Cangemi also has a donkey, Ricky Bobby, on the family’s 4 acres of land between Walkersville and Libertytown.
The reluctant dad has no regrets. In fact, he says the horses have brought the Cangemis closer together.
“I’ll go out there with [McKenna] a few times a week,” Marc Cangemi says. “They’re amazing animals that have the ability to connect with people.”
In the horses’ stable, he is known as the “treat guy.” But he’s gotten involved in their care beyond doling out treats.
“[Marc] has become an everyday farm man, Mr. Fix-It, putting fans in the run-in—he always thinks ahead about how to make [the horses’] experience better before I even think of it,” Beth Cangemi says.
For Marc Cangemi, it’s worth all the time and effort: “It’s impossible not to fall in love with them,” he says.
