Dog Park on a Snowy Saturday

Help me!

Ouch..that's got to hurt.

Bailey loves eating the snow.

This one is my favorite.

Here I am!

Penn State representing

When we told our parents and our friends we wanted to get a dog we were met with a lot of doubt and negativity. "You know they're a lot of responsibility right?" or "You know they're really expensive." "You can't just get a dog because you think it will be all fun." Really? I had no idea, thank you for those words of wisdom. 

At the risk of sounding like one of those old ladies that treats her pets like they're her children...Bailey has transformed my life. He's introduced me to places, people, and animals I'd never meet or speak to otherwise. 

Everyone in Pet Smart knows his name, people randomly stop us on the street to coo and pet him. At the dog park, we swap stories back and forth and laugh while our dogs wrestle with each other.

The minute I held Bailey for the first time in my arms and we began to head home I almost had a panic attack. I am responsible for this living, breathing creature! All of the warnings we had been given started racing through my head. 

All of those worries have been put to rest, now that my motherly instincts have kicked in. I really do love taking care of him, even when it comes to cleaning up after him and paying his vet bills.

Taking care of him has brought Evan and I closer together too. We spend hours together, playing with him, teaching him new tricks. He's so smart! This week we're working on 'stay' and 'paw' during training class. We take him to the dog park every weekend, rain or shine.

I guess the moral of this blog post is: Do what you want to do, regardless of anyone else's opinion. If it feels right to you, go for it. Don't let anyone hold you back from making the decisions you want to make. If I listened to my parents every time they told me I shouldn't do something, I wouldn't have two of the most important things in my life; Evan and Bailey.