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[quote=Anonymous]My dog changed the whole course of my life.

We were young newlyweds living in a small apartment.  I was working long hours, suffering seasonal depression, and struggling to adapt to post college life.  We went to the shelter and brought home a 25 lb, 3 year old fluffball mutt.

All of a sudden, I had a reason to exercise.  Before I could avoid it if it was raining or too cold, but now I got up an hour early to walk her through the park each morning.  I left work at a decent time to take her to the dog park for an hour.

She was really high energy, so we enrolled in dog agility classes to give her an outlet.  That blossomed into my passion, and for many years it was the core of my social life, the center of my friendships, and my weekend activities as I traveled around the region to competitions.  She is now 10+ years old, so she's slowing down, but the friendships are still strong.

Eventually, we realized that an apartment wasn't cutting it for us anymore (I wanted a yard to practice agility in, and a neighborhood with sidewalks for walks).  A year after getting her, we moved into a rental house.  A year later, we bought a house--and one of the biggest criteria was access to walking trails, a large backyard, and commute to not only work but also dog classes (I was going 3x a week at this point).  Things that just 2 years prior we would not have even thought about!!

At the end of the day, she is an amazing addition to our family.  We have since had a child, and the two of them together are definitely more work than either of them separate, but I wouldn't give her up for a million dollars.

Financially, she's expensive.  I spend probably $1000 on vet bills each year, between her annual check ups, flea and tick stuff, and the inevitable once per year "holy crap what did you eat?" or "Shoot, she's been vomiting for 48 hours...we really need to get her IVs".  Food isn't bad (I spend around $15/month on it--she doesn't eat much, and I feed the really high quality stuff).  Training classes and competitions are a lot, but that's obviously totally optional.

Bottom line: More work, more money, more time, way more happiness and love.[/quote]

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