So, lets review....I am a stay at home dad with two little girls. My days are filled with fashion shows, Justin Bieber and princesses. I have attended tea parties with some of the coolest imaginary people you will ever meet, and I can do a ponytail better than 99% of the male population.
While living in St. Louis, we decided that we were going to start the search for a dog, yes, a dog! As if nap time, diapers and trips to the park and the mall were not enough, we were going to throw more chaos in the mix with a puppy that would need more attention than most children. The search was under way and I was stoked because here was my opportunity to take a stand and get the manly man dog that I could walk through the neighborhood and hold my head up high. This was my chance to get a Husky, a Retriever of even a German Shepard of some kind, call him Tank and all would be good.
Well, all good plans have wrinkles and this one was no different. We started our search and all was good until my wife( the one who would be doing little to nothing with the dog) found a rescue center that had a ten pound Maltese named Mia. I was cooked! I took my youngest out to see her one day at the rescue center, which was a woman's house in the middle of nowhere. I was confident we were not going to be taking a puppy home that day and even more confident it would not be Mia. We pull up to the house and out comes the owner of the shelter with Mia. She was frail, had a cherry spot on her eye and looked like she had just gone 12 rounds with a pit bull named Tyson. She was not going to be our dog for sure. We sat with her for a few minutes and let her run around the yard while I spoke with the young lady about Mia and her story. Mia was at a puppy mill in Missouri before being shipped off the NYC. The folks in NYC declined to keep her because of the cherry spot on her eye so she got shipped back. So here we have a 6 month old puppy who has already been shipped twice and now at a shelter........still not our dog. The little one and I packed up and left the shelter and called wifey to tell her the story. She was shocked that we left her there. Well, halfway home I could not get the smell of the shelter out of my head and two years later I am happy to let you know Mia is doing GREAT ....cherry spot gone, healthy as an ox( that weighs ten pounds) and sleeping comfortably with her sister every night.
That being said, the ten pound dog adds an interesting element to the already challenging position of SAHD. Our neighborhood is still in construction mode and there are a ton of construction workers all over the place making it that much more fun to walk the ten pound Maltese. As if I don't have self esteem issues walking into a "Mommy and Me" class , now I am walking the ten pound dog past a bunch of guys with power tools. No matter how hard you try, you can't look really manly when you are walking a dog that is basically the size of your boot. To make matters worse, wifey and the girls thought it would be a great idea to get the dog a sweater..........and guess what color that sweater is? You guessed it, PINK! Needless to say, that sweater only gets worn on the 9:30pm walk when its dark and I know there is zero chance anybody will be outside. I actually walked her one day with a jacket on and the next time I saw my neighbor he questioned my sexuality.( not that there is anything wrong with that) That jacket is gone!
Dogs are an awesome addition to the family and when you have little girls, little dogs make sense. So if you see me walking down the street, just know that my girls come first!
We are off to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie.......yes, that's a topic for another day.
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