A Family Pet

When I first met my husband, he had this beautiful little Alaskan Malamute puppy, just a few months old. For this girl who never had a pet in her life growing up (other than horses on the farm up the road... not quite house pets!), the prospect of having a 130 pound dog in my house two years later when we were looking at getting married freaked me out! All that dog hair to vacuum, pet hair on our clothes when we went out, cleaning up the backyard after the dog... I wasn't too excited about the idea! But it was firmly made clear that the dog was part of the package!

Well, I fell in love with our Malamute. He quickly became MY dog. I fed him, brushed him, walked him every day on the hiking trails around where we lived, took him cross-country skiing in the winter. His commanding presence kept me feeling safe when my husband was out of town for work. He was beautiful! We sadly had to say goodbye to him when our first born was just under a year old. Once we had more kids, I couldn't imagine adding a new dog to the clan...

My eldest has had a fear of dogs since she was a toddler, but in the past few months has started asking for a dog (knowing that a cat is out of the question with her dad's allergy... which would probably have been her first choice). We just added a new baby to the family... I can't imagine having to take care of a dog on top of the kids right now!

We got our first family pets today... Betta fish. No dog... but my birthday girl was extremely happy to have a pet to take care of (one for her younger sister too). Everyone wins! (and she already knows that fish don't live forever... her friend in school was sad when he lost his dog and was now getting a new one, so she gets that pets don't live forever... bonus!)