Exactly one week ago, I went to the shelter and got a new dog.
My previous canine friend passed away about two months ago, after being my best friend for thirteen years.
The house seemed pretty empty without a dog, and I’m so glad I got another friend. The biggest difference in getting a dog now is that I have arthritis and I am also, admittedly, overweight. That makes it really hard to walk her, but she needs to be walked because she doesn’t get any exercise in the backyard. She has no interest in running around and playing in the yard, so to keep her from getting fat, I need to take her on walks, but it is quite hard on me. In addition to my physical challenges, it is also about 100 degrees outside every day. It is no picnic walking in the southeast’s summer heat, and it is even hotter and more humid than usual. I feel like I would not even walk her if I had no a/c to come back home to. Having a swimming pool would be even better, but the air conditioning is certainly a blessing! Funnily, even the dog looks forward to getting back into the air conditioning; I am sure of it. The reason I think so is that he does two things when we get back. First, he goes and gulps all the water out of his dish. Then, right after that, he marches over to the a/c air vent and plops down to soak up all the cool air! One day, the a/c wasn’t running when we got back home, and he just looked at me with those sad eyes as if to say, “What is wrong with the air conditioning?” If I lived somewhere where there is no a/c, I could never walk my dog!