{"id":6262,"date":"2016-03-15T17:57:45","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T12:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=6262"},"modified":"2016-03-15T17:57:45","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T12:27:45","slug":"only-dog-lovers-allowed-how-my-husbands-pet-conquered-my-fear-of-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=6262","title":{"rendered":"Only Dog Lovers Allowed: How My Husband\u2019s Pet Conquered My Fear of Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"\nI<\/span>n a world full of cute dog videos and grumpy cat memes, my deepest, darkest secret is that I\u2019ve never really been an \u201canimal person<\/a>\u201d. All I\u2019ve ever received when confessing this is a look of horror and disgust, always making me wonder whether I had sprouted devil horns and a forked tail.\n\nThere was a time I would cringe in fear when any animal even brushed past me, whether it was a family friend\u2019s goofy labrador or my neighbour<\/a>\u2019s ferocious-looking German shepherd. I was very content to live my life giving a wide berth to all creatures great and small, and hoping that they would afford me the same treatment. That is, until I met my husband, Kaiwan.\n\nEven before our first date<\/a>, it was made clear to me that his dog, Venus, was the most important part of his life. He brought her home when she was a mere two months old, and she\u2019d ruled his life ever since; some healthy social media stalking brought up pictures solely with his pup, and I knew then that if I dated this man, I\u2019d be dating his animal sidekick as well. In our first WhatsApp interaction<\/a>, I was told that the girl in his display picture (that\u2019s right, it was Venus), was the \u201clove of his life\u201d, and it would remain that way forever.\n\n

Love does make you do things you hadn\u2019t imagined doing before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nSo I trod forth with caution, taking it one date at a time. But soon came the day when I was walking up the stairs to his home, to come face-to-face with one of my greatest fears. To my relief, the tiny little \u201cVeenie\u201d, as everyone affectionately calls her, was one of the most docile and calm dogs I\u2019d ever met. She just circled me, took a few sniffs, and on confirming I wasn\u2019t here to rob or murder her entire family, walked back to her bed to finish her nap. \u201cShe has a big attitude, she\u2019s not going to bother you if you don\u2019t have food to entice her with,\u201d my then-boyfriend explained. This I could deal with \u2013 having a dog in the room but one that doesn\u2019t bother me at all. And I did well enough, adjusting to the occasional sniff or her jumping up on my knees when I\u2019d enter the house, knowing that it would make Kaiwan happy if his two favourite girls got along.\n\nBut things reached a make-or-break point last December, when I had to vow to take my husband<\/a> and his 10-year-old Beagle in sickness and in health \u2013 and with dog hair on everything we own \u2013 until death do us part.\n\nLove does make you do things you hadn\u2019t imagined doing before. People give up careers, some move across countries and even continents, some change food habits<\/a>, and some, like me, have to learn the difference between how a dog sits when she\u2019s peeing and when she\u2019s defecating. My family and friends were shocked when they learnt that I\u2019d be Venus\u2019 primary caregiver, because my husband and I live by ourselves and don\u2019t have full-time help. However, when I took on the responsibility, I thought taking care of a dog just meant taking them for a walk or two and putting a bowl of food in front of them every day. (To be fair, Kaiwan warned me that it\u2019s not a cakewalk, but who takes their husband seriously?)\n\nHere\u2019s a PSA for all dog lovers<\/a>\u00a0 who\u2019ve never had pets but are thinking of adopting one \u2013 living with an animal is MUCH more than just playing with them occasionally and talking to them in a squeaky, baby voice.\n\nIn the last two-and-a-half months, I\u2019ve had to learn how to make Venus swallow medicines without getting my hand bitten off, clean her paws and privates every time we return from a walk, measure an appropriate amount of food for each meal so as to not have turn her into a dog-Hulk, take her for vet visits and keep her calm enough so she doesn\u2019t jump off the doctor\u2019s table, train her to sleep on her own bed because there isn\u2019t place for three on ours, and figure which bark means \u201cfeed me now, human\u201d and which one means \u201cI\u2019m in the mood to play but in two minutes I\u2019ll be asleep again.\u201d Most of all, getting used to tiny strands of dog hair on sofas, on the bed, on every item of clothing ever (yes, including underwear<\/a>), all over the car, and on anything in the wake of your little furball isn\u2019t an easy task if you have an OCD<\/a> and cleanliness is your best friend.\n\n

But hair all over the house is a small price to pay for what I get in return. <\/p><\/blockquote> \n\nBut hair all over the house is a small price to pay for what I get in return. These few months with my dog-baby have taught me the real meaning of patience<\/a>. From her refusing to move even two steps out of the house if my husband isn\u2019t with us, to her now happily prancing with me to my mother-in-law\u2019s house 15 minutes away (just 10 if the dog doesn\u2019t need to poop), we\u2019ve come a long way.\n\nShe taught me what a mother\u2019s love<\/a> is, when two weeks ago I left her alone at home to run some errands and heard her high-pitched wails all the way till the ground floor. My maa-ka-pyaar-filled heart couldn\u2019t take it, and made me rush back up to the third floor to calm my furry baby, waiting till she fell asleep before leaving again. She\u2019s made me laugh at her antics \u2013 whether it be waking up from deep sleep to just walk across the room and immediately go back to snoring in the span of ten seconds, or trying to drink water falling from the jet spray instead of the bowl that\u2019s been filled right in front of her. Though pulling me in the opposite direction just to smell other dogs\u2019 stale poop lying on the road \u2013 I still don\u2019t understand that one.\n\nSure, I do have to plan my day\u2019s schedule around her feeding and walking times, but that\u2019s all part and parcel of being a dog mommy. I call myself that now, especially after the day she melted my heart when she refused to go for a walk with my husband, barking for me to join them. This once-dog-fearing girl, who now willingly pets (tiny) pooches sometimes, is now known as Mother Of Beagle, Taker Of Too Many Dog Videos, Ignorer Of Hubby When Puppy Is Being Cute.\n\nI can say I\u2019m a dog person \u2014 almost. I still walk past the park full of German Shepherds during our evening strolls, never daring to enter. Learning to love one dog is enough for me, for now.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dogs and I have never gotten along, whether it was a goofy labrador or a ferocious German shepherd. Even so, I had to vow to take my husband \u2013 and his 10-year-old Beagle \u2013 in sickness and in health, until death do us part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":397,"featured_media":6263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals"],"yoast_head":"\nOnly Dog Lovers Allowed: How My Husband\u2019s Pet Conquered My Fear of Animals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dogs and I have never gotten along, whether it was a goofy labrador or a ferocious German shepherd. 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