02/22/2023
I have one piece of advice and it is this: don’t ever get a dog.
If you don’t want endless excuses to laugh and cry and beam, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want to have to share your meals because the want in those eyes just cannot be ignored, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want a bonus reason to get out for a walk in the sunshine or after a rain or in the mist of morning fog, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want to know that someone is waiting at home for you at the front door, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want to have them in the background of almost every home photo or video, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t enjoy having a sweet and dependable shadow, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want someone who is always willing to hear you, commiserate with you, jump for joy with you, and hang their head out of a car window while you drive, don’t get a dog.
If you don't want an audience when you visit the bathroom, don't get a dog.
If you don’t need an added doorbell chime, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want dependable vacuuming services of the messes your kids (or friends, or siblings or partners) make, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want to feel the soft kindness and warmth of their fur at the end of a long day, a cold night, during a rough patch, or after a heartbreak; don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want to know truly unconditional love, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want to know the absolute definition of heartbreak, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want to believe that angels truly exist on Earth, don’t get a dog.
If you don’t want to know the gut-wrenching pain their absence leaves behind when they’re gone? When they aren’t there to pick up the food that dropped, when they don’t bark at passersby or newcomers, when they don’t snuggle into bed with you in the early morning chill, when they don’t sneak their head under your free hand or don’t pat you with their paw? Don’t get a dog. - Caitlin K.N. Sawatsky