This may be a far-sighted approach when you think of it. I though do have a few reasons of my own to support this theory. I understand that there are many people on both sides of this debate. I also have some of my own which I mention here. Pets make you more compassionate, they make you shower unconditional love. They destress you, a big enough reason in our current world to get one. Also, you can’t imagine the love you get till the time you go through it yourself. It is a completely different feeling. I detail some of them here. I may not be able to change the naysayers but maybe those sitting on the fence may get the final thrust after reading my experiences.

As a full disclosure let me start with the fact that I was one of those on the other side, against all pets at home. So, I am a recent convert in that sense. Few people convinced me in my journey to get a dog and of course, the experience was something I had not imagined at the least. Do I regret any part of it, not at all?

I was not a dog person or a cat person for that matter to start with. I had my reason for it. Some of it was due to the bad memories I had as a child. One fine day, my father got a pair of puppies one a female and another a male. This was primarily to satisfy my younger sister’s demands for a dog. Neither my elder brother nor I were in any way changed by the introduction of the new family members, though I don’t remember that time very clearly.  My sister was overjoyed with their company. She would hold them in her lap, pet them and play with them. 

One thing I do remember is that we could never decide what bread they belonged to. They were black and were supposed to be of the smaller breeds. One of my father’s acquaintances’ dogs had had a large litter and so two of them made their way to our house. We were told that they were black Pomeranians. This was what we believed for a long time. As they grew, we did not see them developing those furry hairs typical of a Pomeranian. Maybe they were a cross or another breed altogether.

We debated on them being Labradors but their size was an issue they were not as big and neither as cute. Anyway, this was a topic that we discussed within the family as a favorite pastime of ours. To this day I don’t know what they were. I have convinced myself that they were a cross of a Labrador and some small breed.

To top it all one day a street dog came over to our backyard and bit the female puppy. The result of it was not expected. The puppy went crazy and bit all the family members. This was even though the puppy was vaccinated for rabies. The doctor was called in and did not have happy news for us. We all had to have the precautionary 14 injections to stay safe from rabies. I did not like it and neither felt convinced by that suggestion. If the vaccination could not save the dog how was that supposed to save us? Yes, I am from that generation when 14 injections were given for rabies prevention. The worst part was that we had to take them in our stomachs and each of them contributed to an immense itch in that area. If you scratch, it became worse and developed rashes all over. Imagine the difficult time we would have gone through in that period.

I am trying to build this initial narrative to show you how far I was in this pet journey and where I landed ultimately despite all my opinions. The injections were the final straw for me to start disliking dogs. I grew up with it and had it most of my grown-up life. I was one of those persons who would look at the dog hairs protruding from a person’s shirt and flinch. I would make faces when I would get into other people’s cars and see their seats covered with dog hair. Not a dog lover for sure you can say. 

You can imagine the disgust I had when my kids came to me and demanded a pet, they knew I would not agree to a dog and so wanted to get a cockatiel. I tried to stave them off sometimes telling my wife the amount of cleaning she would have to do with her droppings and the wing fair all around. I knew that would not work with the kids so I told them that if we had to get a pet then we will get a dog. They were delighted to hear it as that is what they wanted. I had my own reasons for it. I thought my wife will never be convinced about it due to the hair she had to clean. She was a cleaning freak. I was taken aback when the kids asked her and she agreed to one. I did not have a leg to stand on anymore but was still resisting with some excuse or the other, too much work too much responsibility. Both my kids promised to take care of the dog and told me I won’t have to do anything. Though this is not what happened. 

I had all my preconceived notions about dogs and not without reason of my own. Horrors of those 14 injections in my stomach still haunted me. My wife also wasn’t a dog person but was not horrified by the thought of getting them in our home. She was just concerned about the hair and the mess they make, she being a self-proclaimed OCD in that sense.

First, the kids convinced her and bought her over to their side. I was still opposed to it. After my daughter informed us about harming herself due to anxiety and depression, I did not have much of a fight left inside me. My wife convinced me that it would be a good diversion for her, her stress buster. I gave in and agreed to get a dog. The hard part being out of the way the next decision was to decide on the breed. We had seen some Labradors in the family and so decided to get one.

Google became our ally here we searched for the breeders near our house. We exchanged some emails with them and finally came to know about one whose dog was having a litter later that summer. She sent some photos from her last litter. We decided on a yellow female dog, for no reason but for the fact that yellow dogs’ expressions were visible on their faces. All the dogs looked cute but the yellow dog’s expressions were cuter. At this stage, I was just going along with my family. 

The breeder informed us about the new litter of 14 puppies. We were not allowed to see them, for a month, for the safety of the puppies. The puppies were given names by the collar they sported. We had a choice between purple or scarlet. Scarlet was lighter in shade and our inclination was toward it. Though purple was also good and was a Dudley. There was one person ahead of us in the line, so had the first choice we were told. It depended on when you booked your puppy.

We were to be handed over the puppies after 2 months. We decided on taking scarlet, the breeder told us that he will check with the other family first and was confident that we could get her as they also did not have any choice and were ok with any of the puppies. Human nature went against us. As soon as someone chooses something you are bound to want that for yourself. The breeder told us that he reasoned with them to let us have scarlet but they decided on her and did not budge. We brought purple home. While on the way home she was sleepy though very anxious, puking a couple of times, we were taking her away from her mother after all. The only person she recognized in this world. 

We had bought a wooden crate for her cozy home to make her comfortable and lots of toys. She was ok with the toys as such but not with the crate. Days were fine but when we put her inside the crate at night it was a different scenario we had to face. She would howl continuously and lose her voice by morning. My wife and daughter took turns sleeping in the day bed beside her crate. I wasn’t going to lose my sleep for her. Nothing would change her or train her to stay in there. After trying for a couple of weeks we gave up and let her sleep on the sofa. We would tie her to the sofa leg with a leash at night so that she doesn’t run away and send a signal to her that it was time to sleep.

Her howling stopped completely and we also got the sleep we needed a small compromise we thought. Her size increased day by day and before we knew she was a full-sized dog though still a puppy barely some months old. The next difficulty came in when she started chewing everything in her sight. Our leather sofa was a remnant of the luxury it was built for. We patched it with leather strips from amazon. Our wall corners were bitten showing the steel plates inside. I wasn’t aware of plates being inside walls earlier. Nothing was spared. Hard chew toys marketed for aggressive chewers barely lasted a day. She had special chewing abilities. We went from one harness to the other as they could barely last her chewing. She found ways to eat her way out of it. 

 We even got a calming collar for her, so you can imagine there was nothing that we did not try. After the things inside our house were all bitten and struggling to stay upright her chewing decreased and she stayed on her toys for the chewing now. There was one problem after the other literally. She was nearly a year old but would still urinate inside the house. She was one step ahead of us. Right from her howling at night to her chewing she was ahead of us. Finding newer ways to keep us on our toes.

All this while we went from one episode to the other barely getting time to think about whether what we had done was right or not. The family anyway was convinced that it was a good move. I was moving around but not willing to admit it in from of them. She became our darling and the center of attention. We could not have imagined our lives without her now. We wanted to hug her but she would run away, except for the time when she was calm in a sleepy state. This was the time we would torture her with all our love. She did get back to us in her own way though having the last laugh.

                                                              When she is in her cute state 

When we had gotten her home my son would kiss her face and ask me to do it too. Laughing when I did not do it making faces. I wasn’t comfortable with it. Her hair bothered me and I was just doing my duty as I had got her in my home. I don’t know when the transformation happened but one fine day, I was hugging her kissing her, and wanting her to stay near me.  I wasn’t bothered by her hair over me anymore. My wife despite all her love for her was still cribbing about the amount of hair inside the house she had to clean. Her vacuuming had increased to twice a day. Her chewing around the house also did not bother us bringing a smile to our faces with her new activity. My wife would often question me about what I would have done if any of our children had done this when they were young. Both agreed that we would not have been happy or let them do it, they would not have been able to take the same liberty.

I had seen the change inside my daughter due to her presence. Her anxieties had not disappeared but were a little lesser around her. If I had to evaluate my decision on getting a dog this would have been enough. I won’t admit it to myself or to anyone else but I believe in some way I too battle with my anxieties at times and that is what she has helped me with too. We don’t accept the fact about our mental health. Deep within there is a voice that says that this is something that cannot happen to me. I had seen my stress levels going down when I was around her when I was hugging her or enjoying the things she did. The very things which irritated me initially brought a smile to my face now. I would look at her walk and the way she would waddle her booty while walking or run around the house in her zoomies. It pained us when she skipped her lunch or dinner as she was a very picky eater. The doctor even told us not to worry she would be fine even after not eating for a couple of days. She was our furry baby now. The way we brought up our two kids was what we were doing with our furry baby too. We would get satisfaction when she ate everything. We would watch over her when she slept. Hugging her after waking up every day was part of our morning routine. She being sleepy did not offer any resistance and gave in to our hugging demands. The best thing was no one felt jealous keeping her first on the list ahead of the other family members in the pecking order. She was our whole universe.

I am still not a cat person though my family taunts me about my initial dog aversion. I am not sure if that would change someday or when I have a cat around but for now, I am satisfied with my dog. I believe I am more compassionate now than I was before her. I am fully convinced now that this was one of the best decisions, I have taken in my life in getting her to our home, into our lives. The love she showers on us and the stress that she takes away are some of the reasons which support it. Mental health is a real issue, especially in this post covid world. Dogs I feel are one of god’s ways to help us destress. Loving your blood relative is straightforward and easy but caring and loving for an animal as one of your own is when you become a true human. 

I get that not every person has the same love for animals and I would have been in the same boat earlier. When some of my friends come in to visit us, we prefer keeping her in boarding. We don’t want any hate to be around her, this is our way to shield her from it. There is the initial separation for sure but I feel that is better than stroking her anxieties when we go out and leave her at home.

My family is already ahead of me thinking about the second dog we will get. Three of them now want a smaller breed dog in the hope that it will let it cuddle itself and get into their lap. Hope is a good thing they say. I have put my foot down for now telling them that this is the last dog and the only dog we will get in our family. Though never say never, …Sigh.