Love

Boys: if you gag when you see/hear something sappy, I recommend skipping this post...
I have a happy, deep thought type post to write! Yay! Apparently blogging about being out of ideas spurs the creative juices :)

As I sit here watching my doggy sleep and snore like a pot belly pig, I can't help but start thinking about the potential second dog that might be joining our family this summer. We've already got 3 cats and a dog, so I was wondering: how much love is the human heart (mine specifically) capable of?
This is something I worried about when we got Macy, then when we got Koopa, and yet again when we got Jilly. But each time, my heart opened up even more and I ended up loving each one as much as the other. And I love my boyfriend more and more every day, even though I didn't think I could ever love him more than the first time he told me he "liked me so much he loved me." :)

So why, if I've already loved so much more than I thought I could, am I worried about being able to love another dog? With all the people that are giving me crap for getting yet another animal, you'd think that it's them I'm worried about. That I wouldn't want to be looked at as the "crazy girl" with 5 animals.

Here's the deal: I know how we live. I know our house is cleaner and more organized than most all of theirs. I know that every one of our animals is completely loved and cared for. I know just how long (and it's been a long time) we've been considering this...going through our budget over and over, reconsidering how Koopa gets along with other dogs, doing test runs with his dog friends, making sure his training is complete enough that he won't act up once another dog is in the picture. So no, I'm not worried at all about the opinions of other people because I know we have prepared and are (physically) ready for another dog.

I'm worried about the unknowns- the things I can't control. Such as love. Can I love another dog? When Koopa was going through his teenage phase and rebelling against everything we had taught him, making it seem as though we'd never spent at least 30 minutes a day training him, I still loved him. When he was acting up and all I wanted to do was scream at him, I did the opposite (usually)...I loved him. I smiled at him, pet him, picked up a toy and played with him. Guess what that did? It made him snap out of it! We were told that this phase could last for up to a year and we broke though it in just a few months. What that tells me is that if I can open up my heart and let another dog in, so much good will come of it.

We will have another dog to bring us joy and Koopa will feel whole. If those people that call us idiots could see him with other dogs then compare that to when he's at home alone, I think they'd really understand one of the reasons we want another dog. Koopa is one of those dogs that needs a partner in crime. And we want to raise another puppy...and we CAN raise another puppy. All I have to do is figure out that my heart is capable of infinite love and everything will be ok.