When people tell us that now isn’t a good time to get a dog, how should we take that?

If you plan to get a dog someday, there’s not a time better than… immediately.

Why? Lessons learned early always help us in the long run.

We’ll learn to listen to the people that care enough to give us good advice — vet bills, rearranging the house, pet sitter costs, chores, attention pull, FLEAS – damn it all, those fleas are miserable – bathing, whining, the need for a fence, etc. — the to-do list and costs involved in caring for a pet are NO JOKE. We usually don’t consider the true costs as much as we consider the puppy dog eyes and the cuddles.

We learn what it’s like to be responsible for another being — there’s no better teacher for that than experience. So, it’d be better to have that experience once, and know we’d rather do it again, than it would be to spend years yearning in agony for it, only to be disappointed when our perfect time feels far less than perfect… or never comes.

Responsibility is limiting — this is simple arithmetic. If we add duties and time needed to care for something, it must get subtracted from elsewhere. Choose wisely.

Responsibility is rewarding — there are VERY FEW THINGS IN THIS WORLD that can offer a lasting, deeply satisfying-to-the-core reward, and nearly all them are a direct result of responsibility and sacrifice. I’m not saying that a pet can provide that for you in particular, but the principle stands.

It teaches us far more than we can teach it.

That’s basically the rule for most things, if we’re willing to learn and grow, isn’t it?

---

True Story — How’s this for a challenge? Try being informed of a stay-at-home and shelter-in-place declaration by the government, and then 2 days later find out that your dog, and house, have fleas.

Nightmare.

Lessons…