How Adopting my Dog has changed me.

     Back in October something happened to me. I started to change. Back in October, Hubs and I adopted our dog. It's something we'd agreed for years we wanted to do, we just wanted to be sure we could handle it. October, we surprised some people when we announced our fuzzy family member. We kept it quiet, basically because we were making this decision, and we weren't looking for input...from most people, we did turn to a few people during the process, for their experiences. What's more, we expected the processes to take longer than it did. It was our first serious visit to the shelter when we met our dog. I kid you not, we met her on a Thursday and she was part of our family that Saturday. We didn't expect a match so quick.

     But like I said, this changed me. Prior to being a dog mother, well for starters I would've thought you were crazy if you said "Dog Mother". I would have thought, You mean you have a dog, they're your pet. I gawked at the amount of toys my in-law's dog had (but to be fair, they do too). I thought that people who obsessed over their pets, were a little touched. NOW? I'm one of you, and sure, we're a little nuts, but love makes you crazy...am I wrong?

     At the risk of sounding like I was heartless, before we got her, I could see posts from our local shelters, and keep scrolling through my FB feed...I can't do that now. I stop, and I see what's going on with them now, I can't help it. I remember, my little one was in a shelter, and this makes me want to adopt most of them, or wonder, hmm, how would Alice handle it if we brought this one home? The answer by the way? Not well. Alice has some social issues we're working on, but no, she couldn't handle it, not right now anyway. Not to mention, I'm not sure about 2 dogs in my apartment. That being said, I've even seen cats. I'm not really a cat person. I don't dislike them, but I'm a dog person, 100%. There are some cats I adore, my Uncle's cat, he's pretty great. I still don't think Alice would do well with a cat either, so they are absolutely off the table, I have to be fair to everyone.

     But it was a cat post today that prompted me to post this. I was scrolling and it was on my feed, this little girl, she's been at the shelter for a year, and I looked at her little face, and the pictures of her and couldn't understand why. If I thought I could make it work, I'd take her, I wish I could, and was about to post it to the story...but let's be real here, that would be white noise. Realistically speaking, the us crazy pet lovers want to bring them all home. We hear a story about an animal who needs a home, and we want to, we really do...but it wouldn't work. And because we're aching to, we feel like we need to express that. I have no affiliation to a shelter, but I stop and try and think of how many, "I wish I could" posts staff have to sift through to get to those people who are legit asking a question with potential to adopt. For people who have posted these comments, I'm not judging, I almost did too, I'm just sayin.

     I'm not about to adopt another pet, not any time soon, my girl still needs the sole attention, and perhaps always will, and that's okay, because we're good together.