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| Me and my perfect girls. |
Up until October of last year, I had a dog. She was a great dog. Perfect, actually. She did what I told her to do the second I told her to do it. Drink water, go potty, bring me a ball, stay, wait. She knew it all and did it all. I didn't have to leash her and I didn't have to worry about her. And then she got cancer and died and I haven't had a dog since. As a matter of fact, she died a week before I met Jared. So he never got to meet my most perfect, beautiful girl.
Now that I've gone through my mourning process (still going through, on some days), I'm ready for another one. And Jared has the same feeling of dogs as I do: they can complete your life. Where we live right now is a little tiny apartment. It's actually an old hotel room with a little kitchenette. Jared and I have no room for anything. We stare at the wall or TV or we stare at each other. There's nowhere to go if you want to leave the room. It's also on the 4th floor of a big building with elevators and carpet in the halls. So dogs just aren't allowed. I understand that.
But thankfully we're not in a lease and we can go whenever we're ready. We've been here since the middle of May, and really we moved in just because we wanted to live together. This small space has actually been very helpful in a lot of ways for us. It helped us realize taht we're compatiable enough to live together and we can handle being together for hours on end without killing each other. Still, though, our teeny, overcrowded one-room apartment still feels empty without a dog running around it.
So at the end of the month we're starting a new adventure together. We're getting a bigger place, one that actually allows dogs and one that has more than just one small room with a bed and a couch. We'll have a bedroom, an eat-in kitchen, and a living room. It'll be bliss!
We're on the hunt for a dog, but it's pretty much torturous going down to the Humane Society and looking at a dog when you can't take one home with you immediately. But we know we have to wait, and we know we need to find a dog that matches our personality and lifestyle and not just one that's cute.
My biggest thing is having a dog in the wedding. I always wanted Leeluu to be in my wedding. But now that she's gone, she can't be in it, and I hate that. I always pictured her in my wedding. She was a white boxer, so she would've blended in nicely.
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| They all look so happy. |
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I love when people have dogs in their weddings. It just tells me that they're easy-going and can appreciate the little things in life. I am not talking about the people who put a little wedding dress on their girl dog or a tux on their boy dog. I'm talking about people who decorate their dogs just so, and then they include them in their pictures, and the dog is essentially a wedding guest and part of the family.
I hope that Jared and I can find a dog that can be in our wedding. One that will be calm enough to sit still when needed but not be scared of all the people and the goings on. One that will be in a picture with both of us and it will be our first official "family" photo.
I know Leeluu would've been good at the wedding. She would've sat down during the wedding and just hung out, and she would've posed for pictures well (provided we had a tennis ball for her to look at). And she would've been just so pretty.
She'll still be at our wedding. We'll include her on the memory table and, as cheesy as it may sound to people who don't think of dogs in that way, she'll be there, wishing us well, in her own little way.
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| Leeluu Palin |
I can't wait for us to start our own family, and I'm still sad that Leeluu isn't going to be there with us, but I'm thankful I had 7 great years with such a wonderful being, so I am trying to keep perspective. But I'm on the edge of my seat, ready to love on any dog that comes our way, but I am trying to be patient. Just a few more weeks...
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| About 2 weeks before she died. Pure perfection. |
