On having a pet

As someone who grew up without pets — my mother was terribly allergic to cats and sufficiently allergic to dogs to deter our interest — becoming a dog owner has been an experience that is enriching and frustrating in turns. I expected the financial costs, the hazards to carpet and vacuum alike. I hoped for the affectionate companion, or I wouldn't have bought one in the first place. I did not expect the ways having a dog would tether me.

Anchor me? No, I think tether — there is some limited freedom to roam, and I think without her rather than drift out to sea I would drift up into space. I have been bound to life, and to living in the present moment, thanks to this dog, but I'm also bound to this space. Sometimes for good — she is the simplest and most acceptable excuse for Not Doing Things With People — but sometimes I do feel stuck. Not that I think that, without dog ownership, I would have gone on any of the particular trips I've longed to take… but she certainly makes it more of a financial challenge, and a logistical one.

(To say nothing of my idle dreams of moving house. Half the dreams are of large yards she can run around in; the other half are of narrow city townhouses where she would be utterly miserable. It's impossible to reconcile the two fantasies, and the occasional thoughts of "well maybe, after the dog…" are unhelpful.)

I don't really have a conclusion to these thoughts. They've just been circling in my head for enough hours tonight that I knew I had to write them down, or I'd never get them out of there.

( mandatory cute dog picture below the cut )