Failing Greatly: I want all the dogs

I can’t get another dog. Not right now. I have a dog that I love. He is adorable. He is soft and fluffy. He smiles at me and tries to grab my hands in his teeth when I come home (maybe he is telling me to “shake”?). He cozies up to me on the couch, making sure to lean on me just a little bit.

For a short time last year, I had two dogs at once. I had my darling, Minnie, AKA the Minister AKA Minnetonka AKA Minmin. Minnie was a miniature schnauzer that I adopted six years ago. She was the sweetest thing around, with an adorably sad expression on her face. When I adopted her, she was estimated to be 5 years old, but it soon turned out she was probably 7-8, had hypothyroidism, and had epilepsy. She was a sweetie but she was on medication the entire time I had her. The last year of her life she had heart failure and fainting spells, and then she came down with vestibular syndrome (old dog syndrome), where she couldn’t tell where her feet touched the ground and had vertigo. It was a lot of work and ups and downs with Minnie, but she kept me company when my grandfather died and when my dad died, and when I went through job layoffs.

When she was diagnosed with mouth cancer last spring, I knew her time was short and I would have to put her down. Her quality of life was just decreasing, though she still had a bit of spunk. Anyway, I miss her.

So from January to September last year, I had Arlo and Minnie, and they got along fine - they both sort of smelled each other and kept their distance. But it was hard having two dogs and now my mom watches Arlo while I’m at work and she has her own dog, as well.

But still, I find myself getting updates on Facebook from dog shelters that I subscribed to when I was looking for Arlo. And then I go to Petfinder just to “see” what dogs are out there.

I want all the dogs.

And if I can’t have them, I want other people to have them so I can visit them. So I share the photos in my Facebook feed, and I tag friends that I know want dogs in the future. (if you want to check some out, go to www.petfinder.com!)

I’m not sure why I’m writing this tonight; I guess I’m just feeling like I need to confess rather than go on Petfinder right now to look at dogs. I’ve already shared two dog photos on Facebook tonight!

Here’s some of the dogs in my life:

ARLO