...and your little dog, too

For some reason, every post-college grad goes through a phase where they want a dog really desperately.

I have no idea if that's really true.  But it sure rings true for a lot of my friends, and it definitely rings true for me.


Getting a puppy at this point in my life is pretty impractical.  As my mom is constantly reminding me, I can't even take care of myself.  I don't know what's in store for my future, I'm living with my parents for another month and a half, I don't know how to cook anything more complicated than ramen... yada yada yada.

 So guess where this is going.

Meet Toto!

Now I didn't really want my blog to be all about my boring life.  I wanted it to be about more important things.  But I'm making an exception because he's so goddamn adorable.  And because I've already shared with you my connection to the Wizard of Oz, so you understand his namesake.


Here's how my little Toto came to be my companion.  I went to the mall after work with a coworker, and we walked past the pet shop.  The pet shop in the mall in my hometown is very well-known, because they always have puppies in the big display windows.  So as we're walking by, I spot this little black chihuahua.  I was intrigued because I've never really seen an all-black chihuahua, and because I've ALWAYS eventually wanted a little black dog named Toto.  So we go inside just to look around.  An employee is cleaning the cage adjacent to Toto's, and he sees my interest so he opens the cage for me to peek in and get a better look.  And that's how it happened.  Toto ran up to me, the employee picked him up and let me carry him around the store for a while, and one thing led to the next and the next day I made what can now be called my biggest impulse buy ever.

This story makes me seem pretty irresponsible, I realize that.  But what you probably don't get from it is that I've always been a huge animal-lover.  When I was in elementary school, I would get my little heart set on getting a new pet - a hamster, a rabbit, a parakeet, whatever - and I'd spend every single day at the library researching my pet so that I could make a solid appeal to my mom.  (And I was obviously a HUGE geek.)

My mom is the complete opposite of me.  I remember I had to beg and beg and beg to get any pets I wanted.  I ended up with gerbils and a hamster, but I wanted countless others.  I never dared to ask for a dog, even though I always wanted one.  I eventually convinced her to let our family adopt our toy poodle, Dodger, who we got for free when I was like ten years old.  (And she freaking loves that dog now, by the way.)

Dodger

So when it came down to getting Toto, impulsive or not, it took some convincing.  And honestly, I'm not the best arguer, because I tend to be able to see things from all perspectives.  My dad was all for it.  My mom was not.  Growing up, I never rebelled.  I never disobeyed my parents.  And if I did, I did it without my parents knowing about it.  So finally, at 23 years old, I went against my mom's wishes and brought Toto home.  Sure, she was pissed.  For like three hours, until she fell in love with Toto too.  Now I'm wondering why I was so tormented by the thought of going against her will.  I mean I lost sleep over it, and it turned out to be totally fine.

So now I'm going back to the habits of my younger days and I'm obsessed with making Toto the most badass dog ever.  I'm reading the Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan's How to Raise the Perfect Dog right now, and Toto is already a great dog, so I think I have an advantage.  Oh and I'm taking preventative measures against little dog syndrome so that I don't accidentally become the next Paris Hilton.

Wait.


Well anyway, Toto is definitely going to help me keep up with my blog!

By the way, speaking of my younger days, today is my birthday for another hour, and I thought I'd share a quick little story about my childhood.  When I was in Kindergarten I was bold, outgoing, talkative, and probably pretty obnoxious. And I LOVED my birthday more than anything in the whole wide world.  So for the entire month leading up to it, I completely without shame would announce the number of days until my birthday.  I remember being literally so excited about it in the couple of days before that I couldn't sleep.  I couldn't talk about anything but my birthday, and I couldn't help talking about it all the time, even when I was supposed to be sleeping.  I'm not even sure why I was so excited, because it wasn't like I wanted something in particular.  I was just absolutely stoked about turning 6 for some reason.  One moment that I specifically remember is the day before my birthday, swinging on the swings and just screaming at the top of my lungs "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!" 

So fast-forward like ten years, when my mom is working for another school and my old Kindergarten teacher comes in.  They chat it up for a bit, and eventually my mom brings up me, and you know what my teacher remembers about me?  "I have never seen a child so excited about their birthday.  I finally had to pull her aside and tell her that it was okay to be excited, but that she needed to keep it to herself and try to focus on some other things."  How COOL was I?!?!

The moral of the story?  I wish I was still that bold.  I wish I didn't give a shit about what people thought about me, so that I could go shout to the world that it's my birthday today.  Instead, I did absolutely nothing today.  And not a feel-good did nothing, but a lame did nothing.  So for my birthday, all I want is some hope for the future, that I will make it out of my parents' house and into the world, and will one day be able to shout "HELLO WORLD! IT'S ME WHITNEY AND I'VE COME FOR MY DESTINY!!!!!!!" and not give a damn about what people say.