There are dog people in this world and there are cat people in this world. Personally, I am a dog person, always have been, always will be. I have never cared much for cats. I do not deal well with anything that has longer nails than me. I have had many dogs in my life and I loved them all. My first dog was a beagle named Penny, and through the years we had Biscuit, Barney, Ethel, Spud and of course our baby Bear.
Now, Mark is one of those cat people. Ugh! A few months after we were married Mark’s mom somehow convinced Mark to take one of her cat’s home with him. You can imagine how well that went over. The cats name was Rusty and she and I were like oil and water. I would cringe just saying her name. (I said “Rusty” just like Jerry Seinfeld said “Newman”). Six months after Rusty came to our humble home, we adopted a new puppy, Molly (part golden retriever, part cocker spaniel). The best part of Molly was watching Rusty’s reaction ever time she heard Molly coming across the wood floors. Molly’s presence kept Rusty hiding in Mark’s office 99% of the time. She was a GOOD DOG! A few years ago when we moved, Molly moved to a new home. Our subdivision does not allow outside dogs and she had gotten too big to stay inside. Since then we have been pet free and that has saddened me. I feel like every child should have a pet (dog). Mark and I have talked about it in the past, but Mark does not want to go through another “puppy” phase. My solution has always been to adopt an older dog (aka a house broken dog). I muffled my dreams of having a dog for awhile. Until a few weeks ago when a light shined through the darkness.
It was a few days after the New Year and I was sitting in my Sunday school class of 2nd graders discussing a new puppy one of my students had gotten for Christmas. A dear friend of mine entered the room and joined in the conversation. When I shared my dream of having a dog my friend said “Really, I have a dog that might need a home”. Uh? Now, they have an adorable dog of the house broken variety that they love very much; however, their children are older now and they all have busy schedules and it does not allow much time for spending with the dog. HOT DOG! No pun intended, but I was soooo excited! Then in the same moment I thought Uh! Oh! Mark!…..Ugh!
So now I have devised a plan. I like to call it “Operation Doggie Dream”.
Part 1 is to reintroduce the doggie dream to Mark by dropping mentions of a family pet. (Basically tell him how deprived our kids are because they do not have a dog)
Part 2 is to tell him funny doggie stories. (Pull every funny and endearing dog story I could think of out of my bag of tricks and distribute them at the right moment)
Part 3 is to mention the friends dog and how they MIGHT be looking for a loving home for it (Pretty much tell him about the dog and then play innocent like “I wonder who they might find to take the dog“)
Part 4 is to have an Ah! Ha moment and suggest that we could take the dog. (Just like it sounds)
At this point, I have completed steps 1-4 with great success. He is warming up to the idea.
Today starts my next phase which I call “Operation Doggie Deception”. Let’s just say this phase involves my blonde hair, blue eyed daughter telling daddy how much she would luuuuvvvv a dog.
I’ll keep you posted!
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