Everyone knows the quote, “A dog is a man’s best friend,” right? When I hear that, all I picture are human-dog duos having the time of their lives running through parks and playing fetch and what not. Unfortunately, I do not have the pleasure of having the “dog is the man’s best friend” relationship due to the fact that I have a large immediate family, and some of those family members are allergic to dogs. So, to all of those out there who can relate to this, here are a couple of things I think and do to deal with the struggle of being a dog person but not being allowed to have a dog.
1. “My extended family’s dogs are also my dogs.”
2. "My friend’s dogs are also my dogs.”
3. Attending pet therapy (when a college invites dog owners to bring their dogs to the school in order for college students to de-stress).
4. Watch videos of soldiers coming home and surprising their dogs.
5. Watch videos of dogs being rescued.
6. Watch videos of dogs being adopted (and crying during the entire video).
7. Watch videos of dogs doing funny things.
8. Watch anything that involves dogs.
9. Look up pictures of dogs wearing costumes.
10. Look up pictures of puppies … all kinds of puppies.
11. Follow various dog and puppy social media accounts.
12. And retweeting, liking, and favoriting all the things those accounts post.
13. Having dog names picked out for the dogs you're not allowed to have (AKA my imaginary Pit Bull named Max and Golden Retriever named Teddy).
14. Trying to convince my siblings to also want a dog (the more people on my side the better).
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