My husband is a dog person. I am a cat person. I’ve never been one that needed that tail-wagging slobber-flying greeting when I walked in the door. I much prefer cats. They do their thing, you do your thing. Every now and then you cross paths, give the cat a good pet, get a nice purr, move on. Thank you mam. We have gone through several pets in our married life. We started out with one of each. A dog for him, a cat for me. Life was good. The animals even got along. Then came the kids. The dog could handle it, but the cat decided to move on to where he had more space to do this thang.  Most of our dogs have been potty challenged. I’m sure it has nothing whatsoever to do with me and how I tried to train them, but just a freaky genetic thing we somehow ended up having in every dog we ever picked. You know how some people are attracted to the same kind of people no matter what? Even if that type of person is abusive, drunk, stupid, smelly, whatever? *side note here…my cat has been walking back and forth in front of my monitor as I write this trying to get my attention. He just jumped down and ran back and forth in a frenzy and then left the room….I think, in a huff.* Well, we were attracted to bladder problems. It was a sad thing. After several moves, several dogs and several years of my children begging for another dog they “promised” they would feed, bathe, brush, walk, clean up after, play with, and all around adore, we ….I say “we”, I mean I, broke down and got a dog for my husbands 40th birthday. It was what he wanted! I can’t say what made me finally give in, but I think it was a combination of things. First off…I like to surprise my husband on his birthday. It can be hard, but I try. I had been saying “absolutely NOT” to a dog for a couple of years, so I think it was a surprise when I finally gave in. The other reason I can think of is that for some reason….I had been feeling a bit jumpy being alone all day. I mean, with six kids, when am I EVER alone? Now that they are all at school, on most days, I am actually alone. I do a lot of work upstairs in my office and I kept hearing things. My logical brain said…”it’s the cats. Don’t worry about it.” But, since my logical brain is so very much smaller than the rest of my brain, I didn’t listen to it and got freaked instead. So, I thought having a dog around would give me a sense of security. You know, the whole Watch dog thing. So, we get this sweet adorable dog that is, we think, part boxer and part dalmation. She is adorable! She plays with the kids, sits and lets us pet her, is afraid of the cats, and did not bark for two months until the cable guy was here. Then, she found her bark and apparently, likes it. She still isn’t a barker, but she will make a noise when needed. The funny thing about her is…she will not poop in public. You see all these people walking their dogs and stopping every 10 steps to leave a reminder pile. Like…the dogs are afraid they will not remember the way back home. They are leaving markers like Hansel and Gretel. Well, MY dog will not do it. Maybe it is because when I take her for walks I don’t allow her to stop? I don’t know. I did carry the little poopoo bags the first couple of days but…didn’t need them so I stopped.  I was feeling pretty cocky thinking my dog was better than the rest of the dogs. ha ha! So, today…we walk to the bus stop and on the way home, the dog stops to sniff, I think, and when I look down as I pull her along, she is giving me the biggest “I’m so embarrassed and sorry ” look you have ever seeen. And she poops on the sidewalk. I am not about to pick up that stuff with my bare hands so….I ignored it. Do you think the police are going to show up at my door? Or will my neighbors egg my house? I’m feeling pretty guilty right now….of course, not enough to walk back out there and clean up the poop.