Puppy dog tails part two

Sometimes Phillip is done with work at a reasonable normal-person time, so I go pick him up and we drive home together. I work a little bit north of his building in Belltown and it takes me ten to twenty minutes to get to his office depending on the traffic. Yesterday afternoon was gorgeous and I drove too fast with my moonroof open and the radio drowning everything out. Because of all the one-way streets I have to pretty much drive in a circle around his building until I get to the loading docks in the back, where I wait, with the radio on, until he decides it's time to leave (almost always 10 minutes later than when he tells me he'll be ready.) Blah blah blah, this is a standard routine.

Except this time, as I was waiting at the light to turn the first corner, I was pulled up next to this*:

Internet, I about died. Even though the puppy was, you know, doing his business on the sidewalk, and everyone who walked by stopped to coo and block my view, I couldn't take my eyes off him.  He was, I felt certain, the absolute cutest thing I had ever seen in my entire twenty-seven years on planet earth.

Maybe he looked more like this:

Thankfully that light is crazy long and I got to sit there and drool for a few minutes, wondering how I could talk Phillip into getting me my very own bulldog puppy. The cuteness was such that I could feel my insides dissolving into goo. Goo! His owner squatted down to do what dog owners must do, and then he gave his puppy a little treat and I realized I was wrong. Seeing the puppy chew his treat- that was the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. And then I pretty much decided I was going to die unless I got my very own puppy.

When the light turned I whipped around the block and willed Phillip to show up in time to drive by the puppy again, but of course the puppy was halfway to Alaska by the time Phillip sauntered up to the car.

"PHILLIP," I said. "I MUST HAVE A BULLDOG PUPPY." And I did not shut up about it the entire way home. So much so that Phillip said, "Okay, when we have a house with a yard, you can have a puppy." That made me feel a little better.

Then I remembered I'm pregnant. With a human baby. And that I have never ever gone berserk over an animal before** and that maybe I just needed to have my baby already. You think?

*All puppy photos willfully stolen from puppy breeding websites.

**Well, except for Phillip's cousin's Yorkie and our friend's bunny that she used to keep on her city apartment balcony, but not enough to want to take care of them myself. One time Phillip and his roommate bunnysat and when we tried to play with him, the bunny got away and pooped all over the living room because he was so frightened. So the bunny wasn't all that fun. You try coaxing a terrified bunny out from under the dining room chairs.

Comments

[Jenn]

Heee! I am way more likely to go all googoo over puppies and cute little animals than random human babies. You should see me in a pet store, it's a wonder I don't try to jam all the animals under my coat and run.

[Christina/Mrs Broccoli Guy]

Oh those are really cute puppies. But I just read on someone's blog about wiping their bulldog's butt every time he poops and that totally turned me off from the idea of a bulldog. :p
Yes, I think this is your body's way of saying "I'm ready to take care of a baby now!" and hey, you don't even have to wait to have a yard!! :)

[Arwen]

While I was reading this I was thinking, "Oh GOOD LORD do not get a puppy right now, are you crazy?" But I guess you're not really considering it, so whew. A baby is p-lenty of work.

[Stefani]

I can almost guarantee that procuring a puppy will be the furthest thought from your mind quite shortly. I shudder when I think of how close we came to adopting a dog from our local SPCA mere months before the birth of our twins!

[Sara]

Oh, we have a bulldog AND a baby and a ten year old girl. Whew. Got the bulldog before the baby. I love dogs. I am not madly in love with our bulldog. She's very cute, but man are they high maintenance. We don't have to wipe her butt (ewww!) but she has major skin problems, can't eat anything but some super expensive food, can't swim, gets tired easily, can be very smelly, is completely stubborn, and can be aggressive. After my life of labradors, this has been not the easiest adjustment. Admire from afar, is my advice...

[Maureen]

I second Arwen. I was a little afraid you were going to rush out and get a puppy, and man, that would be far, far crazier than demolishing your bathroom right now. Granted, I am not a dog person, so I don't entirely understand why *anyone* would want to live with a puppy. I'm a fan of puppies, sure, but I like *other people's* puppies.