Man's Best Friend {Dreaming Edition}

When I was little...really little...my family had a big dog. A Collie-ish dog. I think it was a boy. Not sure. Dusty was his/her name, and I have a couple of pictures from my childhood that feature Dusty in them. I'd show you, but the best one of Dusty also shows my mom bending over in the yard, picking up sticks. Pretty sure that would not go over well. {You're welcome, Mom.}

After Dusty...ahem...passed, my parents brought a new puppy home. He was a birthday present to me, and I promptly named him Poky. You remember that Little Golden Book, right? The Poky Little Puppy? I thought they had a resemblance...

{Please take a moment to notice how well I rocked the bangs. Thank you. Thank you.}

I loved Poky and wanted to take him everywhere. And sometimes I succeeded in that plea:

Poky didn't adjust well to life at our house...he was a bit more aggressive than we could handle {though he looks otherwise in these pictures!!} so we found him a new home and our next try with a dog was this little guy:

That's a chihuahua puppy. I named him Lassie. Do not judge.

I loved Lassie. He was the best dog. And when he died at far too young an age, we were all devastated. I think my parents were so traumatized by losing Lassie that they just washed their hands of dogs entirely and moved to cats.

And we had cats from the time I was a second grader until I left for college.

As you know, I kept the cat tradition going - mostly because when I was first out of college, I couldn't afford a dog, and then I was just too busy to have a dog and really spend the time with him that I should.

But my dream of owning a dog has never died. Obviously right now, the queen of the castle wouldn't THINK of permitting a dog on the premises, so it's truly just a dream at this stage.

But I'm a firm believer in planning ahead, so I'm forever trying to figure out what kind of dog we should get - someday.

Here's my main question: big dog or little dog??

Little dogs don't eat much and they fit nicely in the car when you want to go somewhere. And I remember a time {long ago} when one of my friends brought along her big dog when she spent the night here, and he was SO huge that his tail knocked over everything in my little house. I remember thinking big dogs and little houses don't match so well. But then again - big dogs can go on walks and runs...they can be good guard dogs, and I know my niece would tell me that's the way to go.

She's got a gorgeous dog that Ryan and I sorta wanted to keep when he visited a year ago:

So that's my working-ahead-years-in-the-future conundrum. If there is ever to be a Shafferland pooch, what should we get??