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I need a canine friend
My husband and I want another dog. Whenever we go to the dog park, we always come away wishing that we had another dog for Chihiro to play with. Cole has his companion, so it would be nice if she had one too. Also, having two dogs and two cats just seems like the right amount of pets for me.
Jonathan and I did seriously talk about whether or not we wanted another dog. As I’ve mentioned before, we ultimately decided that it would be better to wait a while. We still take frequent overnight trips, and it can be complicated enough just bringing our one smallish dog along. Especially because for our second dog we want one that is bigger, at least around 40 or 50 pounds, so that quickly complicates matters.
We decided that we would wait to get another dog until after we have children and those kids are a few years old. We figure that we’ll be traveling less once we have kids, so that should make things easier.
I realize how naive we’re being. We might travel a bit less once we have children, but then we’ll have children. They’re a lot of work, who says we’ll have time for a new dog? It’s important to me to adopt a pet under the right circumstances, to make sure that pet will have the love and attention it needs. We should be careful when getting a second dog to make sure that we can provide that.
In the meantime I’ve strongly considered fostering dogs. As a volunteer I’m on the mailing list for my local rescue, so I receive the fostering requests. Up until now there hasn’t been a dog that’s applicable (the dogs that have needed fosters recently shouldn’t be in homes with other dogs), but I might really think about it if there was a dog that fit my situation
We know that this might mean it could be years before we get another dog. Chihiro might even be too old to care much about a new canine friend at that point. But I enjoy talking about it and it doesn’t hurt to know what we want. I’m sure a lot of this is due to my petfinder.com window shopping addiction.
That addiction, and the fact that I’ve been watching too much Animal Planet while at the gym (I know I shouldn’t, but nothing else is on when I’m in there) has also made me want to consider getting a disabled pet for my next animal.
Jon, of course, doesn’t like the idea. He’s ever the practical one, whereas I’m the bleeding heart. We have to consider whether or not we can provide the care a disabled dog would need. However, depending on its specific health issue, its care might not be that different from an able-bodied dog.
For example, one day we ran into a three-legged dog at the dog park. Even Jon agreed that he wouldn’t mind having a three-legged dog, as long as it could handle our hardwood floors. A nearby town has a rescue specifically for disabled dogs. Perhaps when we’re ready to start looking for another canine companion, we could go there and see if we click with any of the animals.
We still have a ways down the road until this decision is really relevant, but it’s fun to think about it in the meantime.
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