A different kind of guilt

While we were up in Mendocino, our dog stayed with his dog walker who happens to have a similar looking mutt who is female and the same age as ours. They are very good friends. This weekend, our dog walker had a third dog staying with them plus her 11 year old grandson. She lives in a proper house with a yard. This means that our pooch's pack went from 3 in a tiny apartment to 6 people! One a young boy! And TWO OTHER DOGS!!!! When he came home, we knew he'd be tired. But, we thought we'd get more than a half hearted face lick, dirty looks, and a slow trot off to hide under the bed. He didn't interact with us at all until we had hot plates full of dinner.

I started feeling guilty. Then I started looking at dog rescue sites for youngish female boxers or bulldogs. I found a really good one too - a 6 month old boxer named Sassy who happens to be in San Francisco. Then I looked at our small, relatively messy apartment. I grabbed an edamame and held it in front of my face so I could at least pretend that he was listening and said: "Dog, if we could afford it we would have a bigger place and a friend for you. But, we can't. We already spend a small fortune on healthy designer dog food and your dog walker so you can get a lot of fun time and have your own friends. You need to remember where you came from. You were left next to a dumpster in a parking lot in some small redneck town. We've done everything we can to make your life as good as possible. I am not going to feel guilty about that."