I used to be one of those people who would shy away from dogs when I saw them. The hot, stinky breath, the dirty fur, the slobbery chops…I had no desire to spend any more time than necessary with the canines that crossed my path. All of that changed, however, when we had to dog-sit my mother-in-law’s dog for a few months. Her name was Rylie and she was a huge black lab, built like a beluga whale. I remember being somewhat miffed upon her arrival, and I would bemoan the fact that I had to follow her around with a vacuum because she was shedding so much and stinking up our house. But after a few days of being the one to feed and care for her, Rylie began to get excited when I would get her breakfast in the morning, and her tail would wag excitedly when I came home from work, and if I ever threw a ball for her to catch, she had a grateful look in her big doggy eyes. It didn’t take long for my heart to soften towards this furry black beast and I started to appreciate her gentle personality and her intuition. After a few months, my mother-in-law took her back home, and I missed the clumps of fur on my carpet, and the smell of doggy breath, and the ecstatic tail-wagging.

So, we decided to get a dog of our own.