#dogsss

I went to the bar and met some cool dudes but LOOK I MET A DOG!

during daily yes-mom-i’m-still-alive phone call she told me she’s thinking about adopting an old dog, like an elderly german shepherd.  I suspect it may have been a wine-fueled notion never to be mentioned again (or possibly even remembered), but I’m like omggggg please yes.  she doesn’t want to get a puppy because she’s afraid it would outlive them -- which seems a bit morbid, given that my parents are, uh, 71? I think, and have zero health problems (dear god, parents, please have passed on your livers of steel to me), but fair enough -- and also because healthy or not, a german shepherd puppy is probably beyond their ability to deal with, which also fair enough.  but god, I hope she’s serious, I don’t know why it never occurred to me, but that would be perfect.  old dogs have such a hard time getting adopted as it is, probably especially breeds with a (ridiculous) questionable rep like shepherds, and an old, chill dog would fit in perfectly with their life.  when our shepherd freya died in 2008, it was fucking catastrophic to my family (see here, in poem form), because, like, all four of us, my parents brother and me, we have amiable but strained and complicated relationships (except my parents, maybe, who’ve sort of just settled into a resigned, mildly affectionate dislike of each other), and she was the only family member we all just loved fiercely and unreservedly, and loved us back the same.  I think we’re the kind of family that’s better off when it’s not just the four of us and there’s someone else to focus on, we’re kinder to each other, enjoy each other’s company more, even, when there’s a friend with us at dinner, or a dog at our feet.