For Valentines Day this year I got Ben a dog... for 24 hours. A co-worker needed a dog-sitter last weekend, and it seemed like an easy way to show Ben, a pet lover, my love. A quick history of Ben's love of pets: His mom let him have a ferret (Pouncer) growing up as long as he bathed it once a week. His freshman year of college, he and his roommate had two pet fish (Madeline Albright and Colin Powell). He adopted a wild hedgehog on his mission. We recently had two small pet frogs (Flash and Ali), who are no longer with us. Ben has now moved on to new pet phase, which we can call "wannabe dog owner." We don't own a dog, but he's obsessed with man's best friend. Apparently I agreed to let him get a dog when he's 30? I don't remember officially agreeing to this, but there have been several signs that Ben is serious about getting a dog in the next two years:
1) He has faithfully been getting allergy shots since last August. While the goals of the shots is to get rid of allergies to many things (pets, plants, pollen, etc.) , he affectionately refers to his shots as "puppy shots."
2) Our TIVO is now set to record shows such as the Dog Whisperer, Pit Boss, and Dogs 101 every week.
3) Ben started volunteering at the Washington Animal Rescue League.
4) He is on the verge of launching a free dog sitting business, if I'm not careful.
If Ben is the pet lover, I am the dog skeptic. At this point in our lives, dogs come with too much cost, commitment, and cleanliness issues. Plus, city living is not the ideal lifestyle for a dog. Dog-sitting Brooklyn, a one-year old black lab, last weekend proved my point about commitment and cleanliness. He was super energetic and took a lot of our time. I also vacuumed three times within 24 hours to pick up the hairs. However, Brooklyn was also a lot of fun. He's a very energetic and lovable dog. Ben took Brooklyn on several runs and they both were in heaven. We also took Brooklyn to the arboretum for a walk and some sprint sessions. Video and photo highlights are below.
1 comment:
How did I miss this post? I don't know. But I'm curious about the "puppy shots" -- I have always had pretty severe allergies and did some allergy shots when I was younger but never saw results. Is he really getting less allergic to things? Also, if you get an inside dog, this would seriously impede my ability to come in stay in MY suite :)
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