Making the dog decision

I don’t know about any others out there, but I always considered myself more of a cat person than a dog person. My first family pet was a dog, we had multiple dogs growing up, I love dogs, but boy did I love cats. Then, as an adult, I got a grumpy cat. Wow. I still love cats, but man, you should meet my cat.

Anyway, for years I’ve wanted a dog but lived in a place where they were not allowed. Months before we moved into our new place (let’s be real, for two years I’ve been taking about this) I started talking about getting a dog:

• “Oh my gosh, we can get a dog!”
• “Do you want a dog?”
• “I want a dog!”
• “What kind of dog do you want?
• “Should we get a dog?”
• “What would we name dog?”

And on it went… for months. In fact, I’m sure I bored the boyfriend to no ends with dog talk. Some days it’s all I really talked about, looked at, or discussed. When it was decided that we would love to have a dog around, then I got nervous… because now it was real! I don’t know about you, but when you worry about everything, this was a big thing to worry about.

• “Will I be a good dog owner?”
• “What if I get a dog and regret it?”
• “What if I fail at owning a dog! Oh my god, I can’t think about that.”
• “What if the dog develops some medical condition and I can’t take care of it?”
• “What if the dog ends up being a terrible dog?”
• “Do I get a rescue or a puppy? What if people judge me if I get a puppy because I didn’t get a rescue?”
• “What if I get a dog, suddenly lose my job, can’t take care of the dog, and then I have to get rid of it?”

And on it went… for weeks! For real.

Then finally, in my twelve hundredth dog discussion of the day and an exasperated boyfriend later, I saw the post: “Mini Aussies available.” My world was about to change forever.

Coming next: Bringing Home Puppy