(Wo)Man's Best Friend

I mean honestly, who can't love a face like this? (Not me, the dog).

Roo and I have been pretty lonely without O here to hang out with, so we have been spending some quality cuddle time together instead. We have also been doing a LOT of running outside. Usually I take to the gym when the going gets tough around here with the humid weather, but Ripley is seriously an awesome running buddy. He settles right into the stride focuses really hard and does a great job of motivating pulling me through the tough spots. Plus it's extremely hard to ignore his face when you put on your running shoes. Even if your plan was to go to the gym, the anticipation on his face guilts me into suffering the humidity for him every time.

Most of you know that Ripley is a dog racist. If there were a doggie Klan, he would be in it. He hates all, and I mean ALL, other dogs. O and I have spent countless hours and thousand of dollars over his four year lifespan to learn how to control this behavior. And let's face it, he still acts a fool whenever he gets a wild hair (which is often). I try to be consistent every day with being the pack leader (a la Cesar Millan) - exercise, discipline, affection and whatnot. It's freakin' hard work. This is how I imagine parenting to be: having a toddler for 24 hours a day who does everything possible to make your life hell....and then...a moment like this just melts your heart. By the way, I can't imagine having a two year old and this dog at the same time. God help me.

And speaking of actual toddlers (not dog toddlers), it annoys me greatly when people say to me: "What if he bites your kid?" "What about having kids?" First and foremost he isn't in danger of biting my kid because I don't have one. He's not going to bite anyone else's kid because he's not around them. Like we are some kind of irresponsible pet owners. He's aggressive with other dogs. When I adopted this dog, I made a promise to love, protect, and care for him. Call me crazy but he had my heart first.

He's an inconvenient, hyper, 95 pound nuisance sometimes, but I would go to the ends of the earth for this dog to have one single moment like this. Love. Loyalty. Trust. Companionship. Humor. Rewarding. Friend. All words to describe how I feel about this dog the majority of the time.

And that is it for my dog tribute today.

PS. Cesar if you read this, you can come over anytime :)