Aren't we the lucky ones?!

If you met someone who is dopey, funny, loyal, loving and caring towards the same people you are, never even thinks a bad thing about you, and is always glad to see you, would you want to be friends with that person?


And for all of you thinking, "Wow, that's creepy!" - really think about it. I'm describing a non-creepy person, someone totally trustworthy.


Now, imagine if that person was actually a part of your family. Would you feel blessed? Grateful someone, somewhere, thought the two of you should be together for as long as fate allows? I am.


So when people ask me, "If it's so tough to find housing while having dogs, why don't you just get rid of them?" I don't get upset. It actually makes me pity them (obviously, I won't tell them that) that they don't get to have the kind of happiness my dogs bring to me in their life.


My dogs certainly have their downsides - sometimes they stink, sometimes they run into glass doors, sometimes they dig up my yard, and sometimes they cost me a whole lot of money in hospital bills. But then, so do my children - and "getting rid of" them isn't an option. So why would it be an option for my dogs? Aside, of course, from the responsibility of pet ownership, which I fully agreed to and knew what I was doing back when I was 22 and got these animals. Exceptional pet owners know that pets are not dispensible. If you must, you rehome them - but you simply do not "get rid of them."


Whenever The Husband deployed, it was Petey who would patiently sit while I cried into his fur. When someone attempted to break into my house when I was pregnant, it was Molly who went into protector mode and went on the attack. As my children learned to be kind to animals, it was Petey whose whiskers were methodically pulled out, and Molly who was trapped in a corner by a crazed, screeching baby in a walker.


My dogs are wonderful. They love my kids and protect them when we're outside; they lounge around the house all day and don't chew anything up except maybe a wooden puzzle now and again. They are super quiet when guests are over, they always wag their tails when I enter a room, and no matter what room I'm in, that's where my dogs are.


For two creatures who have given everything to me, protected me, slept under my children's cribs (ok, still sleep in my children's rooms), and are constantly on-guard with people who give off any sort of negative vibe...They are my family just as much as my children. And they deserve to be treated as such, no matter how old they get, no matter what medical problems come up, no matter no matter no matter.


I am saddened that those who ask me why I don't "just get rid of the dogs" will never have this kind of love to call their own. But then again, those who are simply given gifts usually don't appreciate what they have. It's those who work for it - picking up the dog poop, taking time to pull ticks, giving baths and going for walks and getting rewarded with unconditional love - those are the ones who appreciate it.


And aren't we the lucky ones? :-)