Dog Days of Summer

It's a dog eat dog world out there. If you can't beat em, join em. Put those two together, and what you get is the fact that I want a dog. In fact, Mommy wants a dog too. If I had to guess, Kaylani would want a dog as well. So why is it that we don't have a dog? Oh right, because everyone told us not to get one.

3 years ago when we lived in Orlando we talked about getting a dog. Mommy wanted a Yorkie or a Maltese and Daddy wanted a big ol' Lab. What we wanted didn't matter because we weren't at a point in our lives where we could get a dog. Mommy and Daddy were both traveling 4 days a week, which meant there was little time for a dog (or much else) . Then, after moving to our apartment in NYC, we had to put our dog day dreams on hold. But all of that changed when we bought a house in NJ, but then quickly changed again.

Our backyard is completely fenced in which means it's perfect for a dog of any size. Well, maybe not ANY size, but definitely big enough for a Lab and way too big for a Yorkie. We finally had our house in the burbs with a fenced in yard, so it meant it was dog time, right? Right...kinda. We were in the market for a dog, and at that point, we even knew Kaylani was on the way. Unfortunately for us, everyone else knew Kaylani was on the way, and everyone else steered us away from getting a dog.

Apparently the consensus was that having a baby AND raising/training a puppy is not a good decision. These "babies" take up a lot of time and attention, and so do puppies. We thought we could handle both, especially with the aforementioned fenced in backyard, but in the end, we decided to hold off. Not because we thought we couldn't handle it, but because we were unconfident, newbie parents. Well here we are now with 7 months of parenting experience built up (plus 50% on top of that that I earned from having a "Dads, Not Babysitters" t-shirt from Dad-Blogs). And now, I want a dog.

We finally got around to watching Marley & Me last night. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it as long as you can handle a sappy movie with a ridiculously sad ending (which I won't give away although I'm sure you could figure it out). Sappiness aside, it brought back my desire to have a puppy of my own again. It's been 15 years since we gave away my puppy Max (a Bichon) because I was headed off to college and my parents were moving to Boston. And for 15 years, I dreamed of the day when I could get a puppy of my own again. Maybe, just maybe, that day is near.

There are definitely the pros and cons of having a puppy, and I'm well aware of most of them. Sure they take a lot of work, need a lot of attention, and have the potential to eat my baby, but all of those are offset by how fun, loyal, and cute there are (okay, maybe not the eating my baby part). We were over at Aidan's house today and they have a Yorkie that definitely didn't try to eat Kaylani, unless you count a couple of licks to the face as eat attempts. I mean, I guess it could be a bit different with a Lab, but that really just means it's a bigger tongue to lick her face with, right?

So we're not sure if we'll get a puppy now or not. Maybe we should hold out a few more years until Kaylani asks for one. Sure would be easier than buying her a pony or a spaceship. Unfortunately I've never been one to wait around for things to happen, but fortunately the one thing I've learned since I've had Kaylani is patience. They say it's a virtue. I say it doesn't get me a dog. Tough call.