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 In
my last update I talked about
various preparations our household has been making for the possibility
of becoming dog-owners. Since then, the theoretical dog has become
a reality: her name is Molly and she's really very nice!
Like many aspects of my life as a 44 year old, the me of long
ago would never have believed you if you told me I would someday
own a dog, much less that I would have bonded with it almost
instantly. But it's true. Andy
Looney, former dog-hater,
now lives with a lovely little doggie and is delighted to be
doing so.
Molly is a blend of breeds, predominantly Pekinese, and she's
about 5 years old. She's friendly and well behaved and the only
reason her owners were giving her up was because of allergies
that had developed in one of the children in the household. So
actually, there's a very sad story in the midst of our happy
news, since our gain is another family's loss. Plus of course,
Molly is going through a strange transition too, suddenly being
taken away from her loved ones and not even being able to understand
why it had to happen and that her old master really won't be
coming back for her at some point soon.
But happily for us at least, the transition is going amazingly
well. I embraced this new change of life with an open mind and
a lot of positive energy, but even so I'm frankly astonished
at how quickly I've become her alpha male and she's become my
beloved pet.
I think a lot of our success is due to the care and patience
that went into our dog selection process. As noted, we've spent
a lot of time getting ready for this day. Obviously there was
also some luck involved, but we got a dog we're bonding well
with because we were picky and held out for a dog we knew we'd
have the best chances of bonding well with.
Much like myself, Kristin has never owned a dog before and
hasn't generally been fond of them, but she too is getting along
really well so far with Molly. Again, this success is largely
due to careful selection. "She's cool," Kristin says,
because "she doesn't do a lot of the things I find annoying
about dogs."
As for the cats, they too are taking this new invasion amazingly
well. Obviously they took a dim view at first, but again, it's
actually pretty astonishing how quickly they seem to have gotten
used to having a dog around. Perhaps the Nessa
training helped them prepare as well. Also, Molly had been
living with two cats in her old home, so she knows how to interact
with them.
Anyway, it's still pretty hard to believe, but the population
of Wunderland.Earth now includes a dog! And while all of us are
happy about it, none of us could be happiest than Alison, shown
here on the night Molly showed up, when her birthday cake also
became a congrats-on-finally-getting-a-dog cake.
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