Why my dog gives me hope for the future...

I had good intentions when I got my dog. I wanted a big dog who would lay at my feet and be calm. I wanted a dog I could walk. I wanted a good dog. I wanted Lassie.

What I got was an out of control, jumping maniac. He bit a neighbor last year when I did try to take him out to the park. He practically ruined my back door. He ruined new pool covers 3 years in a row. Remember this post? When I threatened to kill him?

I gave up on this dog. He was on the waiting list for the no-kill shelter. He was nearly hauled out to the middle of no where and left for dead multiple times. I'm being brutally honest. This dog was killing me... slowly.

But I wasn't willing to give up. When it came down to it, I just couldn't give up on him.

Someone told me a few weeks ago that I need to lower my expectations as to how everything was supposed to fit together for us. I was supposed to settle for something less than what I wanted.

I have always had high expectations... for myself and others. And this can lead to huge frustrations on my part.

But am I willing to give it up? No.

I have hope that we can accomplish anything we want as a family.

Because my dog is laying in my bed with his arms around me, sleeping and hugging me.

And while I realize dogs and kids/life/family/dreams are NOT the same thing... it's the situation I'm talking about. A situation I thought was unfixable. A situation I thought would never change. A situation I thought would never be the way I had imagined it to be. A situation I felt I had no control over.

But I gave it another shot with my dog. I was unwilling to change my expectations, and I put in a lot of time and effort which makes unfixable situations somehow more fixable. And now my dog is better than Lassie. So there.

And this gives me hope.

And this...