So We Got a Dog

For those who know me, it probably comes as something of a shock that I would count myself as the owner of any pet larger or less disposable than a goldfish. I, myself, am still sort of surprised. About a month ago, I finally caved to years of pressure from my wife and kids, who all seemed to want nothing more out of life than a canine companion.

I had been quite vocal of my general dislike of the idea of pets in general. People often mistook this for some sort of anti-animal sentiment. This was a strange sort of conclusion to draw as, for me anyway, there was always a clear distinction; I love animals, but was less keen on owning one and having it live in my house with me.

And honestly, I was pretty dead set against getting a dog, which seemed to be the top choice of my family unit in terms of companion creatures. Owning a pet always seemed to me to be an unnecessary extra expense. It felt like a counter-intuitive waste of resources. It also provided another fairly large point of entry for dirt and all manner of bacterial intruders to lay siege to my already besieged homestead. Going on a trip out of town would have an extra level of logistics as we would have to either make arrangements for someone to look after the thing, or make room in the car to take them with us.