How it All Began

"Dog or no dog" was NEVER the question. 

Even when we were dating, I told my husband-to-be that a dog was a non-negotiable. I think that was Date #3. Putting it all out there, right up front. I didn't want to waste his time or mine, if he couldn't see a dog in his future.

What I didn't count on, was that four years later, it wasn't a dog, so much as a PUPPY that he had his heart set on. I worked at the San Diego Zoo for eight years, trained dolphins in Hawaii, and took care of orphaned chimpanzees in Kenya. So I thought for sure I could sweet talk him into a nice little two-year-old dog. After all, he had no idea...

A project manager at heart, my husband speaks in bullet points, so I created a list, in his language, that went something like this:

1. House training implementation on a timeline of his/her own.

2. Scopecreep in chew marks.

3. Constant need for exercise exhaustion, despite stakeholder energy levels.

4. House training. Again.

 No luck. He was not to be deterred by a little poo. THAT was how it all began.

Or maybe it isn't... Maybe it REALLY all began when Chris and I began working together at a bank in 2006. One week after I was laid off (and he wasn't), we began dating. 

Two and a half years later, we married. After returning from our honeymoon, we spent the next few months moving me from CA to TX to NC with him. We sold one house and bought another. We got everything settled and bought some new furniture. We built a fence around the backyard.

And THAT'S where we are now. In NC- with the Southern "ma'ams" and "sirs," the glorious green kudzu that takes over, the Bo Jangles galore, the amazing colorful leaves in the fall, and the houses that sell for a pittance of what they'd cost in Los Angeles. This is where we are now. And I'm loving it. 

Now we just have to find our dog. Or... puppy, that is. THAT is how it all began.