{"id":3828,"date":"2016-05-10T15:26:38","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T09:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3828"},"modified":"2016-05-10T15:26:38","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T09:56:38","slug":"doggie-break-up-girlfriends-pet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3828","title":{"rendered":"Doggie Break-Ups Are a Bitch: How I Pined For My Ex-Girlfriend\u2019s Pet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cW<\/span><\/p><\/div>

e need to talk.\u201d<\/span>\n\nThose aren\u2019t words you want to hear your <\/span>girlfriend <\/span><\/a>ever say, let alone when you\u2019re fighting over a squeaky toy with a playful, eight-month-old Labrador pup. But clearly, Tanya was in no mood to postpone the discussion.<\/span>\n\nI was 16, she was my first girlfriend, and it was our first real fight. Tanya believed I had been neglecting her, and lavishing all of my <\/span>love <\/span><\/a>and attention towards Rosie. In hindsight, Tanya was probably right. After all, our relationship began over Rosie. It was 2012. I was listening to music in the building garden when a snow-white Labrador <\/span>puppy<\/span><\/a>, barely larger than a child\u2019s forearm, ran out of the grass and began tugging at my shoelaces. A girl came chasing after the Labrador, but she was too late to save my laces.<\/span>\n\n\u201cStop it Rosie! I\u2019m so sorry about that. She hasn\u2019t been trained yet,\u201d she said with an awkward smile. <\/span>\n\nThat was the first time I met Tanya, the girl with a tender smile and hazel eyes, who\u2019d recently moved into the apartment above mine with her <\/span>parents <\/span><\/a>and her pet dog, Rosie. And thanks to her puppy\u2019s ferocious attack on my shoelaces that evening, I\u2019d found the perfect excuse to make small talk and get her phone number. The only thing standing in the way of us finding bliss together was the furball that caused our union in the first place: Rosie.<\/span>\n\n

Later that evening, I sat on the bench weeping, replaying the incident in my head. Rosie\u2019s woeful howling continued to echo in my head long after she left.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nThe dog seemed to hate me at first. Whenever I\u2019d try to get close to Tanya, she would bark and growl. I tried offering her biscuits, but she\u2019d cut me down to size and roll over and go to sleep. The lowest point in my <\/span>relationship<\/span><\/a> with Rosie came when I tried to hug her, but she proceeded to wriggle around, stretch a limb over my face, and shower me in urine. Sure, I had to watch Tanya laugh at me, bathe four times on a Sunday and burn my clothes covered in dog pee. But I never gave up.<\/span>\n\nOur breakthrough came when I introduced a squeaky toy into the equation. It took Rosie all of five seconds after spotting it to come bounding toward me and cover me in slobber. That was the first time I\u2019d ever experienced such affinity toward an <\/span>animal<\/span><\/a>. Having grown up with parents who detested the very idea of having pets in the house, I\u2019d often longed to own one myself. And with Rosie around, those feelings of longing were finally fading, and being replaced with feelings of tremendous adoration toward a <\/span>pet<\/span><\/a> that wasn\u2019t mine.<\/span>\n\nPerhaps that was the problem \u2013 Rosie was Tanya\u2019s dog, but I truly treated her like she was mine. I\u2019d become so attached to her that I\u2019d insist on taking her for walks. On one occasion, while Tanya was too caught up with her <\/span>homework<\/span><\/a> and wanted to meet another day, I got into a squabble with her over Rosie. So, out of utter frustration she let me take her to play. Where once I\u2019d check in with Tanya, ask her how she was doing with schoolwork and her parents, I would now only be calling to make plans with Rosie.<\/span>\n\nTogether, Rosie and I would spend the evening attacking squeaky toys, chasing annoying children, and scaring away flocks of <\/span>pigeons <\/span><\/a>picking seeds. And toward the end, we\u2019d go lie down on the moist bed of grass in the garden, where I\u2019d talk to her about things that had been bothering me. Ironically, during these one-way conversations, I\u2019d end up venting to Rosie about the problems in my relationship with Tanya.<\/span>\n\nOne evening, Tanya confronted me: She knew that I was continuing to date her only because I was attached to her pet. And just like that, my summer <\/span>romance<\/span><\/a> was over. There was a teary-eyed argument, which ended with Tanya saying she couldn\u2019t stand me anymore, before she stormed off, tugging Rosie along on the leash behind.<\/span>\n\nLater that evening, I sat on the bench weeping, replaying the incident in my head. Rosie\u2019s woeful howling continued to echo in my head long after she left. It felt as though someone had ripped my heart out \u2013 only, I was aching for my furry friend, not my girlfriend. <\/span>\n\nThe coming months were difficult. I pined for Rosie the same way one pines for a lover they\u2019ve been forced to part with. To make things worse, I\u2019d also stopped meeting the friends I\u2019d made before I met Rosie, so in a way, I\u2019d also lost the only people to whom I could vent. Every evening, I\u2019d sit near the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of Rosie from afar. Sometimes, I\u2019d even contemplate calling Tanya to make amends so my waggy-tailed friend and I could unite. But that was not to be. <\/span>\n\nI am not the only one left heartbroken over the pet, rather than the relationship. As <\/span>this article<\/span><\/a> in Cosmopolitan magazine has it, breaking up with a doggie has serious consequences. One respondent spoke about how she was worried about her two dogs after her divorce. \u201cTheir well-being was something I considered and really felt wrecked over for a long time, thinking about how much they would miss [her partner]. I cried in a closet once and promised my dogs one day they\u2019d have another, better dad in their lives. There was still some discussion of maybe trying to split up the dogs and do a his and hers situation, but I ended up feeling really strongly that the dogs needed to stay together. It\u2019s actually written into our divorce agreement that he has the \u2018right of first refusal,\u2019 meaning that at any point if I were to need to get rid of my dogs, I\u2019m legally obligated to ask him to adopt them first before I can give them to anyone else.\u201d <\/span>\n\nI, of course, was too young to have a pre-nup or post-divorce agreement \u2013 my time with Tanya was fleeting. We were both carefree teenagers, equally clueless about how real relationships worked. But the time I got to spend with Rosie taught me a few things about how unconditional love worked. <\/span>\n\nToday, when Tanya and I cross paths in the building compound, we hardly acknowledge each other as we go on our way. But Rosie always stops to give me a big, wet kiss. Love is, clearly, a four-legged word.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was 16 years old when my first girlfriend, Tanya, believed I had been neglecting her, and lavishing all my love and attention towards Rosie\u2026 not another girl, it was her pet Labrador. In hindsight, Tanya was probably right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":3829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[7167,4759,54,56,224,7168,22,408],"class_list":["post-3828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-love-and-sex","tag-attachment","tag-break-up","tag-canine","tag-dogs","tag-love","tag-mutt","tag-relationships","tag-sex"],"yoast_head":"\nDoggie Break-Ups Are a Bitch: How I Pined For My Ex-Girlfriend\u2019s Pet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was 16 years old when my first girlfriend, Tanya, believed I had been neglecting her, and lavishing all my love and attention towards Rosie\u2026 not another girl, it was her pet Labrador. 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