orange_crushed | WOOF WOOF BARK, or was it BARK BARK WOOF

I told my boss this morning that I am undergoing a kind of biological clock explosion: I suddenly want to be a household of three-

-no, no, not that. What I want is a dog.

I desperately want a dog. I miss getting nosed awake in the morning by a bright-eyed crazy thing and going on long walks in the freezing cold to watch him turn belly-up and make snow angels in total bliss. I miss throwing the stick thirty gajillion times. I miss the greetings, I miss rolling around on the rug and playing keep-away with the squeaky hot dog with the chewed-off face. I miss falling asleep on the couch with a dog curled up under my knees, I miss the happy dancing before dinner is served, and watching the annual birthday cheeseburger getting slobbered off a paper plate. I miss my dog, all the little rituals we kept, whose importance I never even truly recognized until they were all gone.

I know, whine whine whine. My life is great and I shouldn't complain. I just miss being around a dog.

It can't happen right this second, owing to our long workdays and the sad fact that our current apartment forbids dogs, but it's something Mr. Orange and I talk about all the time. To a level, you guys. We pick out names and talk about our differing pet-parenting styles, oh would we use a crate, oh would we go to obedience classes; and how it would be if we had two dogs, and what parks we'd take them to, and who would pet-sit if we had to go away, and how we'd work out our schedules to provide an afternoon walk, and oh they built a dog park two blocks away, and oh my co-worker knows a good vet and seriously, when we do get a dog, I wonder if we won't become helicopter dog parents, enrolling the poor thing in dog school and making it wear a tiny dog blazer and sit up straight and trying to get it to "achieve." Joke! But we are so overinvested in this imaginary dog, I have to lol at us.

Plus I should stop going on Petfinder and torturing myself. I can't help it. I even watched the Puppy Bowl (...twice) with the lunatic intensity of a six-year-old. I MUST FOCUS ON SCHOOL, EVEN THOUGH SCHOOL IS NOT CUDDLY.

(...but no, I would not mind any cute animal pictures, gifs or youtube clips in the comments. It would probably make my day.)