Doggie Birthday

Of course, we are the family who celebrates the dog’s birthday.  Does this surprise you? Max was an American Kennel Club registered Golden Retriever so we knew his exact birthday.  If you don’t, you can celebrate your dog’s Gotcha Day (the day you brought them home).  Or if you’re totally off the rails (as I have become with my dog Sonny), you can celebrate both!

Not A Rescue?

I think rescuing dogs is a deeply beautiful thing to do.  I hope to do it one day when Mikey lives happily on his own (in his intentional community with supports for people with special needs).  That said, we got Max when we had one toddler and one baby on the way.  We were in between houses and it was a stretch for us to get a dog at all.  We needed to know that the dog’s breed was well-suited to families and young kids.  Even then, we did a lot of training with the kids and the dogs over the years to make sure everyone was behaving safely and respectfully.

Doing Good

I think there are lots of ways to make the world a better place.  Rescuing a dog is a great way if you can be sure you’ll be able to provide the dog with a permanent home.  Dave and I do not take in rescue dogs while we have Mikey at home.  We need breeds that are forgiving of mistakes and protective of our buddy.  He is great with animals. He’s gentle and loving to our dogs, but he is also sometimes very loud and he has giant animated body movements.  These are not things he can reliably control.

We know we need breeds that are clearly family dogs.  They need to grow up with Mikey and know his behaviors as normal (and not something to cause the dog to become upset or aggressive). We’ve had two Golden Retrievers and a Black Lab and so far so good.  If you’re thinking of getting a dog, take your family’s needs into account as well as the needs of your potential pet. Try to make the whole thing as easy as possible…which may mean not getting a pet at all.