Heartless Dog Hater? Maybe I Can Love a Fish

I feel kind of bad about it, but I don’t get people that love pets.  Part of the fun of kids is that they grow and progress and change.  In my eyes that makes them fun.  Dogs seem to pretty much stay the same after they are one year old.  My brother keeps sending me pictures of endless reasons to not have a dog.  They have some serious damage ability.

We always had dogs growing up. I had the job of pooper scooper for many, many years. I figured I’d have one when I had a house.  Our dogs could always come indoors.  Brian’s family had outdoor only dogs.  That stopped us in the beginning, we couldn’t agree.  Now Brian has legitimate allergies (his eyes swell up and anywhere that touches the dog turns red and itchy). Finally though I realized I don’t really like animals.  My little brother was the animal lover and in time took all the dog duties in the family.  They truly loved each other.  Realizing this I figured dogs are nice to pet once in a while, but the amount of work involved is too much for me.  I don’t really want to pick up poop and take them for walks when it’s hot and humid or frigid and cold.

Families pay large amounts of money to move their pets overseas and make sure they are legal here.  Airfare, licensing, shots, vet visits, etc.  Then the houses are so small that people actually pay for a van service to pick up their dogs and drive them to doggie day care to exercise their dogs.  I think that is actually quite good, these big dogs shouldn’t be shut up in tiny condo type homes.  It’s just the expense.  Yikes.  All this for what?  A nasty tongue lick on the face.  No thanks.  I would really like the companionship I just can’t handle the messy shedding and the slobber.  Maybe if I could get me a really, really clean dog I could change my mind.

I’ve ended up quite thankful for Brian’s adult onset allergy problem.  It ends the question in a jiffy.  “Nope.  We can’t get a dog, Daddy is allergic,” say my kids without prompting.

We have promised them a fish for about a year though.  I think Jake is finally old enough not to try to pick up the fish and hold it and kill the fish.  I think we’ll have to get one when we settle into our new house.