(no subject)

[fadeaccompli]

I am in serious danger of bringing home a dog soon.

Now. There are a lot of good reasons to get a dog. Someone to go on walks with! (I don't have to keep walking to the grocery store if I have a Reason to just go walking.) Companionship and cuddles! Slightly more protection against home burglary! Save a sad-eyed hound from a sad end! (The animal shelter does its best, but still euthanizes a lot of animals.) Keep the cats from getting too complacent!

And I don't think I'd be a terrible dog owner. I mean well, and I am surrounded by enough people who really know dogs that my friends would beat me over the head if I did anything terribly negligent. I mean to take the dog for walks twice a day, go through basic obedience training at the pet store, and buy proper equipment. Responsible stuff.

But...there are a lot of reasons not to get a dog. All that barfing. All that shedding. All that doggy smell everywhere. Occasional accidents in the house. Freaking out the cats. Other acts of minor (well, hopefully minor) destruction. Really and truly needing to take the dog on a walk twice a day, no matter the weather. More complicated pet-sitting arrangements. More vet bills and pet equipment expenses. Needing to refence portions of the back yard to be proof against a rather spry older German Shepherd.

...because. Uh. I did kinda meet this adorable eight-year-old shepherd mix at the shelter today. She loves curling up on couches, I gather, because she leapt onto every bench we passed and happily curled up beside someone there once given a chance. Her paperwork says she's house-trained, and good with cats and other dogs, and not too bad on the leash, and medium to low energy...

I don't know. Maybe I'm letting the whole OH MY GOD ADORABLE DOGGY thing sweep me away. Possibly I should be concentrating on academics instead of canines, y'know? But I admit I'm darn tempted.

ETA: I almost forgot. Picture! (I took many, but it's such a pain to move pictures from my phone to anywhere else.)

Comments

[neogrammarian]

ARGH. Long comment eaten.

Short short version- each dog is different. My dogs barf less than my cats. Some are smelly (hounds have oily coats). Most never get a bath in the shelter (and thus are stinky anyway). Some have very little smell. Some need 90 min of fast walking per day. Some need 15 minutes some days. Some will refuse to stick a nose out in the rain. This dog may not want much walking in the hot weather bc of her dark coat. She is 8, and large dog breeds don't always get very old, but it's a mitzvah to give an old dog a good last few years.

[fadeaccompli]

See, this is one of the reasons why I spent a lot of time walking dogs at the shelter yesterday; I wanted to find out what the high end of their energy levels were, since most of them were at Peak Excitement to be taken out for a walk after being cooped up in their kennel. This dog was happy to walk, wanted a few brief bursts of running (in bright sunlight, but not hot weather), and was somewhat bouncy.

She definitely smelled like dog, but I expected that. And some bath and brushing would happen. Vomiting... god only knows.

[neogrammarian]

Yeah, there's a point where it's a leap in the dark. but if it's the right dog for you, you'll soldier on through the bad times with love, bc the dog loves you right back. She sounds super.

[fadeaccompli]

I keep feeling bad about wanting to take him away from the even more elderly dog he's with. But honestly, I do not think I want my first dog ownership experience to be...quite that old. And they weren't listed as "please adopt together" as some pet couples are, and he seems like such a sweet dog. But I still do feel a bit bad about just wanting him.

(Also, every single time I talk about this dog I use female pronouns, and have to go back and correct, even though every dog my family ever owned was male. Odd. Maybe because I have all female cats?)

[neogrammarian]

hah pronouns are funny things.

Yeah- you can't rescue every one, that's for sure. We do what we can and give them the best lives we can.

[fadeaccompli]

It was heartbreaking walking through that shelter. I mean, it's a lovely shelter! Big inside/outside pens for all the bigger dogs, regularly cleaned, toys and comfy beds inside the pens, lots of volunteers walking them. But I'd walk down a row of twelve dogs, and half of them would go hysterical with barking, and half would run up and sit just in front of the door, staring at me, tail wagging furiously, in hopes that I wanted to take them out for a walk.

(And dammit, so very very many year-old pit bull mixes. Which speaks to a certain massive irresponsibility out there that's not just "We got this puppy and then had to give him up a few years later because of Reasons." Sigh.)