The Day I Decided I Needed (YET) Another Dog

This week's writing prompt is to write about how our family pet came to be inspired by the Busy Dad Blog.  

I have been an animal lover my whole life.  My mother never let me have a hamster because "they attract rats."  Really, Mom?  Like one hamster in a cage is going to lead to an entire rat orgy in our house?  I never knew!  Good thing Mom was there to teach me this shit...this and other stuff like "a wet towel on the floor will attract cockroaches."  Her imagination was awesome!

When I got married and realized that Mom can't control me anymore, I pictured an entire house full of animals including hamsters and yes, maybe even rats...on purpose!!  I never did get the rats but I would have.  The problem is that my husband is allergic to animal fur and dander and I have spent the last 20 years of my marriage devising the perfect plans for me to get what I want.  I am damned good at it now!

We realized that hubbie isn't allergic to Poodles so we got a miniature one.  That is Clifford, the mental case. 

 Then we got another one...Chloe the primadonna.  She is more the size of a toy poodle.

My husband was determined we were done with dogs.  I wasn't.  I told him that I wanted a standard poodle and he was all "No way, I like lap dogs."  I had been "price checking" female standard poodles and they ran between $800 - $1200.  I knew that was just way more than we could spend on a dog.  I checked shelters, Lollypop Farm, etc...but nobody was giving up their pure-bred dogs.  I had to go with a pure-bred because of the allergies or else I would have adopted anything!

One day, while he was at work, I saw an ad in the paper for standard poodles for $200!!  I called the lady and she had females for the same price!  So, I did what any neurotic wife would do.  I put a kennel in the truck, grabbed my hubbies checkbook and was off!

I drove for 45 minutes to a farm with a shack for a house that had no electricity, an Amish-looking woman, and about a million poodles...all living outside and filthy.  I wanted to take them all!  I felt so bad for them.  They were all flea-ridden, all had burrs stuck all over them, and all had bad ear infections.  I picked one dog out and fell in love immediately.  I put her in my truck then noticed that she had a bad infection in her leg.  I told the woman about the infection and she acted like she was shocked.  Righttttt, lady....you are soooo attentive to your dogs!  How this went unnoticed was a true mystery!  I picked another dog, paid the 200 bucks and put her in the car. 

The car ride home was interesting to say the least.  SHE FUCKING REEKED!!!  My husband called me while I was driving and being the sensible driver I was a the time, I answered the phone.  He asked me what I was doing and I said in my sweet I-totally-am-not-doing-anything-wrong voice, "Nothiiiiing."  He said, "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" then he heard the dog crying.  

"Did you get another dog???"  

"Um, a little bit."

"What did you get?"

"A standard poodle."

"How the hell did you pay for it??"

"Ummmm, your checkbook."

"WHAT THE HELL??!!  How much did it cost?"

"$200"

"That's it?  Why?"

"Let's just say that you get what you pay for!"

By the time we got home, she had pissed, shit, AND puked in the kennel and I nearly puked getting her out of the car.  I hosed her down, bathed her about 5 times and the stench wasn't any better because it was all coming from her ear infection that literally took 4 years to get rid of!

My hubbie was mad at the time but as soon as he saw her, he fell in love!  About  2 months ago, she almost died and I had to take her to the emergency vet.  It cost $1200 and when I apologized to hubs for the cost, he said, "I would sell the house for that dog!"

She truly is an amazing dog and we can't imagine life without Izzy!  How could we NOT fall instantly in love with this??