Deep Breaths

So, I've calmed down a bit since yesterday. I wrote to the rescue and explained myself, but I haven't heard back from them and I'm afraid either my tone was a little too offended, or they've already dismissed me.

I think the very core of what you all have been telling me is, if I know we'll be good dog owners, then we shouldn't stop looking. And the right dog is out there.

The right dog is out there.

It fuels my neurotic side to know that we may have been ruled out by one of the shelters here (what if they get our dog?!), but it's just a fact I'll have to accept. For the last couple of nights we haven't been going to any shelters - we've been preparing our house. We're dog proofing, neatening, straightening and cleaning. We've been finishing laundry and long-overdue culling of possessions. Tonight will be more of the same - hopefully we'll find a "Large" dog crate somewhere on craig's list for cheap. Hopefully I'll get my butt in gear and sew up a big dog bed.

Last night we ordered three of these:


Now I realize the picture is taken artfully to make it look like there's no WAY Fido is getting out. And I know that there's a very realistic possibility that Fido will escape, but they're nice gates, we'll hold onto them for baby time, and if they work to keep the dog in the Kitchen during the transition period where we won't know whether we can trust him loose in the house - then awesome.

Some of you also asked about how long the dog would be alone. For this, I have a story.

My husband is many things, and he loves me dearly - which is good. But he's not great at showing it. One of the reasons he's not great at showing it is because he has a single-track mind. He finds it very difficult to juggle tasks. So where I would be able to think up three or four things to deal with simultaneously in an evening, he can only do one at a time forsaking everything else. If he's doing the laundry he's doing the laundry. If he's working on the home office, he'll forget about everything else for hours. If I interrupt him and remind him that he had wanted to groom the cats, then he'll drop everything and groom the cats and have a hard time remembering what he had been doing before hand. If I hand him a to-do list that we wrote up together, he'll follow the to-do list one item at a time and completely forget - for example - that I'm in the house too and, you know, it might be nice if he said "hi" to me every once in a while. If I give him a verbal to-do list, it's counter productive to tell him more than 2 things in a row cause he'll forget and do the thing you last said while completely ignoring that first, most crucial thing. It's hard for us to relate this way because list-making is probably what 35% of my brain is doing at all times.

Anyway. Greg has gotten it into his head that in order to be truly ready for this dog, he needs to do all the things that we would do with the dog. He started yesterday. He gets up at 5:15 a.m. and goes for a 45 minute walk ... by himself. In the freezing cold.

At lunch time he drives 25 minutes, spends 10 minutes at home, and drives 25 minutes back to work.

I wouldn't be surprised if he started going to a dog park in the evening and throwing tennis balls at nothing.

I kid. I kid.

I can make all the jokes in the world, but I find it incredibly touching that he's so determined with these routines. And let me make THIS clear. He can walk the dog for 45 minutes in the morning, but he doesn't have to. If we happen to get a dog that can only go half an hour... 15 minutes... etc., we can cut that amount of time down - but we want to be prepared for the highest amount, the greatest time commitment. Anyway, my point is that Greg is working very hard on figuring out a way for the dog to be taken out at lunch. I don't think we can afford a $15 a day pet sitter or dog walker, so it's either Greg goes home, or we start paying for a parking pass for me so that I can actually wait to go to work till 8:15, come home at noon, go back to work at 12:45 and go home at 5:00 p.m.

I've been reading alot lately about whether or not you can successfully have a dog and work full time. Most of what I've read has said that it is definitely possible - and not may of the people who say it works are getting up for a 45 minute dog walk before they go to their jobs.

Regardless of all this, I'm still a little edgy. I think it's because of several things. First of all, Greg is still flip-flopping. One minute he tells me we have to visit shelters EVERY NIGHT to meet EVERY DOG that comes in. The next minute he tells me we're not ready yet because the house isn't ready yet and we don't have the gates and we don't have a crate let alone food bowls, food, leashes, collars, toys etc.

We also can't protect one room of the house for the cats with that gate/cat door thing till the gates get here.

There are so many suggestions out there for what to do to prepare for a dog - mop all your floors with ammonia-free cleaner? get anything dog-mouth-sized away from dog-level? that when Greg tells me we should go look at dogs, I caution him with patience. And now, when I'm desperate to get out to meet somebody, Greg starts balking.

Are we really ready? Yes and no. Greg gave me a sweet little speech last night as to why we were ready for a dog, and he was happy. And this afternoon when I suggested he leave work a little early and we drive to Ohio to meet some dogs he sputters that we need more time.

I wish "worry" was less like experiencing a nauseous stomach ache or this nagging little demon clawing into the back of my skull and was more akin to eating fresh-out-of-the-oven donuts or dancing to cranked up music.

Thinking about all these doggie ramifications is exhausting.

I thought to end this post, I'd share something crafty with you. A while back I started up with these after I found bunches of sparklies on wires around the Christmas Season. I bought tons of them on sale and then it took me a while to figure out what to do with them, but I'm pretty satisfied with the result. Do you think they're Etsy-worthy?

Green and Gold Tiara:



Simpler Spiral Circlet:

Dew-Drop Tiara:



Wearing them really does make you feel like a princess.


Thank you all so much for your advice and support. I think as far as the dog, we'll figure it out. I'm sure there will be more posts about our journey here or our preparation for the journey... in the mean time - I'm comforted by the fact that I know I have a lot of love to spare, and that love for whatever dog we adopt will help the rest fall into place.