I want another dog so bad sometimes
Apr. 13th, 2006 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ambericaI got my dog Muffin when I was 4 years old. She came to live with us in November, 1981 when she was just 8 weeks old. She was a beautiful black and white phantom toy poodle. If you think poodles are horrible yappy dogs, you have not owned a poodle, so SHUT UP. Seriously, shut up. I don't want to hear any negative garbage about a breed that is nothing less than totally ideal for me. If you have bad things to say about poodles or their hair or anything about them, please take it somewhere else. They only have that curly hair to remind you that they are the EINSTEINS of the dog world. (OK, 2nd only to Border Collies, but still remarkably intelligent, perceptive, trainable, personable, and wonderful.)
Muffin lived to be 16 years old. When I was 20, she had what we can only assume was a massive stroke overnight. She woke up in the morning and had trouble walking. We put her outside to pee as we did every morning, and she got confused and asked to come back inside, where she peed on the floor and then walked into a wall. She was suffering and confused. She didn't know who we were or what was going on, and she had very little control over her body. She was taken to the vet and it was decided that it was time to let her go. It wasn't fair to her to let her suffer in that state. This was still very sad. Think about letting go of a family member. Even when they are very old and ill and suffering, it is never easy. Losing a dog that has been in the family for 16 years is the same as losing a full-fledged family member. Heck, Muffin even out-ranked my youngest brother Adam in the pack hierarchy! She was no less a family member than my parents, me, or my brothers.
I'm 28 now and have not had a dog in my life since Muffin died. I really need one. I mean, really. Unfortunately, I just can't see any humane way of doing this right now. The soonest it could happen would be after the move this spring, but then we'll still both be working full-time, so we won't be able to dedicate the kind of attention and training that a young dog or puppy needs and deserves. If we still lived in Roseville, one or both of us would be able to go home at least once during the day to check on things, let the puppy out, all that good stuff. But after moving to Forest Lake, we're going to be losing that option. And I just don't think it's fair to leave a dog in a crate for 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week. And I'm not ready to quit my job just to raise a puppy. I'd quit my job to raise a baby, but not a dog. I'd need to breast-feed a baby and all that other fun stuff, and we couldn't get any tax credits for having a dog! As important as dogs are, I guess babies are even more important.
But we don't want to have babies yet! And we do want a dog! But we can't have a dog, so I don't know. I had a hell of a time falling asleep the other night, because my sleepy brain got stuck in a spiral of thinking that went, "Can't have a dog, can't have a baby until we've had and trained a dog, but can't have a dog... CAN'T EVER HAVE BABIES! ACK!" (repeat ad nauseam)
Don't say it - I should really lighten up. Well too late - I already have. So there. I don't know what the solution is going to be, but things will work out one way or another. They always do. I'm not worried about that.
Muffin lived to be 16 years old. When I was 20, she had what we can only assume was a massive stroke overnight. She woke up in the morning and had trouble walking. We put her outside to pee as we did every morning, and she got confused and asked to come back inside, where she peed on the floor and then walked into a wall. She was suffering and confused. She didn't know who we were or what was going on, and she had very little control over her body. She was taken to the vet and it was decided that it was time to let her go. It wasn't fair to her to let her suffer in that state. This was still very sad. Think about letting go of a family member. Even when they are very old and ill and suffering, it is never easy. Losing a dog that has been in the family for 16 years is the same as losing a full-fledged family member. Heck, Muffin even out-ranked my youngest brother Adam in the pack hierarchy! She was no less a family member than my parents, me, or my brothers.
I'm 28 now and have not had a dog in my life since Muffin died. I really need one. I mean, really. Unfortunately, I just can't see any humane way of doing this right now. The soonest it could happen would be after the move this spring, but then we'll still both be working full-time, so we won't be able to dedicate the kind of attention and training that a young dog or puppy needs and deserves. If we still lived in Roseville, one or both of us would be able to go home at least once during the day to check on things, let the puppy out, all that good stuff. But after moving to Forest Lake, we're going to be losing that option. And I just don't think it's fair to leave a dog in a crate for 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week. And I'm not ready to quit my job just to raise a puppy. I'd quit my job to raise a baby, but not a dog. I'd need to breast-feed a baby and all that other fun stuff, and we couldn't get any tax credits for having a dog! As important as dogs are, I guess babies are even more important.
But we don't want to have babies yet! And we do want a dog! But we can't have a dog, so I don't know. I had a hell of a time falling asleep the other night, because my sleepy brain got stuck in a spiral of thinking that went, "Can't have a dog, can't have a baby until we've had and trained a dog, but can't have a dog... CAN'T EVER HAVE BABIES! ACK!" (repeat ad nauseam)
Don't say it - I should really lighten up. Well too late - I already have. So there. I don't know what the solution is going to be, but things will work out one way or another. They always do. I'm not worried about that.
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Date: 2006-04-13 02:34 pm (UTC)Do what I did: Get a dog, and if you find that work is interfering too much with your relationship with the dog, quit your job. It's worth it! :)
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Date: 2006-04-13 02:51 pm (UTC)What you did was a brave and noble thing indeed. Quitting a job to enjoy more time with your dog is a beautiful thing to do - but I just don't think I'm noble enough to be able to pull it off! Plus I still have student loans to pay off... I think I'll just wait and see if an alternate option presents itself somewhere down the road... :)
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Date: 2006-04-13 03:38 pm (UTC)i couldn't be happy without my dog, goblin.