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My husband and I have always presented a united front on the topic of getting a dog. A firm no has always been the answer. When pressed further I have too many messes to clean up already was the standard reply.
July 13, 2010 can be marked as the day I lost my mind. It was summer vacation and I had my two little ones with me. We arrived for an appointment ahead of schedule and parked in front of a boutique that carries tiny dogs and dog accessories. The kids wanted to look at the dogs,so we went and held a sweet shihtzu puppy. Right then and there I wanted a little dog as much as the kids. As I settle into my forties,and my kids get big, I miss the sweetness that comes with having a baby in the house. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss being encumbered by diapers and car seats, but there is an aching for the tenderness of a baby. I moved from a firm no to a let’s find a dog.
As it turned out, the pet store shihtzu was not meant to be. My oldest son was vehemently against buying a dog, he wanted to adopt one. The kids found Always Hope Animal Rescue http://www.petfinder.com/petsearch?animal_type=dog&status=A&shelter_id=MI749&sort=identifier+desc Four days later we were loaded up and ready to go check out a litter of shihtzu pug mutt puppies. Noticeably not loaded up or ready to go was my husband. He stood alone in the firm no department. He knew we were going “to look”, but let’s be honest here. Who takes three excited children an hour away to “look” at a litter of puppies ? Certainly not this mom ! We had never been to a pet adoption event before, and had no idea what to expect. We intended to get a black girl puppy. It turned out a little caramel colored boy was to become the newest member of our family.
That was the middle of July. Fast forward to yesterday. Chewy (the slightly ironic name he came with) had just finished a game of football with my eight year old and was curled up in my lap as I worked on my laptop. He heard the garage door go up and ran to give Rick his nightly greeting. A wide smile spread across my face as Chewy licked Rick’s face and I heard him say, “This guy is a pretty good addition to the family”. Lofty praise coming from a man who was a firm no. When I finally made it up to bed, it was no surprise to find the two of them sound asleep, together in our bed. A good addition, indeed.
