I've made no secret of the fact that living in the Midwest has been an adjustment. The weather is this wild card I never had to deal with before. Moving here from southern California, I was spoiled rotten with my perpetual 75 degree, sunny days and my ability to complain when it was never quite cold enough to wear my favorite new sweater or to look "all cute" in my spiffy new wool hat I had no business buying in the first place.
And then there's the fact you can be a dog owner and not have to think about things like how to handle when your pooch has snowy paws or how to give him a proper walk when it's negative 20 degrees or it's been raining, cats and you know whats, for two days straight.
So for this reason, I said I'd never get a dog while living here. Never, never, never. It wasn't even a maybe. It was a resounding (insert eye roll and cocky, I know something you don't tone) never. My thought was I'd wait until I eventually relocated back to Cali to rescue my four-legged friend. He could wait, I could wait and we'd all be a hell of a lot warmer when it happened.
But then I had my daughter who, of course, is a humongous dog lover. In fact, she could probably give Cesar Millan a run for his money with her dog whisperer ways. But still. Even though she's been like this since she was six-months-old, she's still only three and doesn't really know what she wants! So I was still saying that word, you know the one that always bites you in the ass because you should, well, never say it.
Until I didn't.
Until five days ago when I abruptly paused our newest binge watching obsession, Friday Night Lights, turned to my husband and said, want to go to the animal shelter and take a look?
Of course we both knew we could never go there and just browse, then head home and think about it. Like that time we were considering buying a treadmill. We both knew that if we stepped foot inside one of those kennels we would not be leaving there empty handed.
I casually texted Liz from the shelter, peppering her with questions. (As you all know, she's a self-proclaimed animal-a-holic.) She finally said, Wait! Are you looking for a dog for you? I could picture her face all scrunched up into a confused expression as she stared at the screen on her phone wondering what had come over her best friend.
And now we have Lily. (Liz also has a Lily she recently adopted which I took as a sign. Plus, of course we would both end up with dogs with the same name!) She's an eight-month-old, gorgeous pointer mix and we love her. She rode home in the back of our car, her tail thumping wildly as we blasted 80's Dance Party and never flinched once (not even when Ton Loc came on!), which I took as another sign.
In two days time, I already have enough "new dog parent eff up stories" to fill a dozen blogs. And I'll eventually share those with you, but for now, I'll share a valuable lesson learned:
Never say never. Especially when you have kids. Because once you become a parent, it's simply not all about you and your ridiculous blanket statements anymore.
Tell me your pet stories! Can't wait to hear.