Sharing the love

Nate and I did something royally stupid. I mean, REALLY crazy. Something we probably should not have done in a million years.

We got another dog.

Now, most of you probably know the love-hate relationship that we have with our two dogs, Bella and Bruiser, where Nate mostly loves them and I mostly hate them. They're a tad bit on the spoiled side, and a huge bit on the "peeing all over the house" side. I mean, seriously, the dogs are three and four years old and just recently got to start sleeping out of their kennels at night. They're BAD!

And now, on top of that, we're adding in another 7 week old puppy, and I am realizing what a startlingly non-nurturing person I am. I would much rather worry about ten other things at the same time than a puppy that is causing me to lose sleep. When she cries in the night, I cover my head with a pillow and think very naughty words. When I have to give her a bath first thing in the morning because she's drenched in pee, I run out of time to get myself ready and, again, think naughty words. When I realize at bedtime that I'll have to deal with it all over again in the morning, I want to get into my car, run away, and think numerous naughty words, more naughty words than there are ungraded papers on my desk (oh crap, insert a few more of those words). Are you sensing a pattern here?

Ask me again why I haven't had kids. I'll be honest - it's because I've always thought of myself as selfish. And I've never been ashamed to admit that. I wanted to focus on my career, on my Nate, on fixing my fabulous hair in the morning instead of washing someone else's. I WANTED TO HAVE TIME TO APPLY EYE MAKEUP FOR WORK! Is that so wrong?

And even as I'm typing that, I'm thinking about the strange flip side to myself. I'm claiming that I'm selfish, knowing that I always take care of things, people, etc., which is undoubtedly a total contradiction of what I mentioned above. Have I lost my mind? Is this the wrong time of month? Am I just a woman, and therefore make no sense? HELP!

Nate gave me the option of taking a Chesapeake Bay Retriever puppy and starting from scratch raising an animal. She's like a combination of the elements of our two favorite breeds of dogs (chocolate lab and golden retriever), but I promptly said no. Then I asked for a picture...

One picture and I totally fell in love with her. It didn't take much. Apparently, at the end of the day, I'm just a big softie. I can't seem to say no to an adorable, wiggly little ball of fluff.

OR a puppy.