Monday, June 23, 2008

Outnumbered

I want a dog. Have for a while. This is the longest I have been without one in my entire life--more than two years now.

Trillian is a bit reluctant. I'll even admit that many of her reasons are valid. Primarily the whole "let's not take this on while we're trying to have another kid" reason. Plus her allergies.

But I want a dog enough that I'd be willing to compromise my pound-puppy sensibilities to get a dog breed that tends to be less allergenic.

For a while, I had an ally. Scooter thought he would like a dog. But then we stayed with my sister--and her oversolicitous Labrador.

A typical conversation goes like this:

Me: (using an opening, like he sees a dog and comments that it's nice) That dog sure is nice. Would you like to have a dog?

Scooter: No, I already have pets. I have fish.

M: You could have fish and a dog.

S: No, then the house would be crowded.

So apparently a 5-gallon tank of tiny tropical fish is the tipping point in our house.

If I press him further, he'll come up with other excuses. Today, it was that a dog would scare away Trillian. When I said, "But what if she wants the dog?" Then it would scare away me. If both of us want the dog? It will scare away Scooter.

I've been outvoted and emphatically so.

3 comments:

Aliki2006 said...

Oh, I'm sorry you've been outvoted--Scooter would have been a valuable ally. Maybe he'll still come around?

karengreeners said...

I want a dog too, but I will never convince Chris. A typical conversation on the subject:

Me: I want a dog!
Chris: No way.
Me: C'mon; I'll walk it, you won't have to.
Chris: You mean, unless it's too hot, too cold, too late or too early?
Me: Yeah, you're right. I want a dog!

I'm probably worse than a toddler. Good luck.

Mouse said...

There was a short period of time (maybe a month before our visit to my sister) when Scooter told me he could do everything a dog needed. I was doing research then into what kind of dog we could get that wouldn't aggravate Trillian's allergies too much.

Trillian knows that I'm actively trying to get Scooter to reconsider his resistance. She laughs, because he's so dead set against right now, it won't matter what I say. If he comes around, it'll be because of some internal discussion, not anything I say.