Dogs were the first love of my life.  Growing up in the city, there were dogs of every shape and size walking with happy owners or running loose as strays.  Though I could see dogs and interact with them by asking their owners if I could say hello and then lingering for a very long time petting and talking to their dogs, I didn’t have a dog of my own.  I desperately wanted a dog.  While my mom shopped in the grocery store, I’d hang out in the pet food aisle, looking at the bags of dog food labeled with mutts and purebreds, wondering what it would be like to have one of those adorable faces to care for.  On one of these grocery store trips I discovered a silent dog whistle in the display of dog toys, vitamins, and other products.  According to the label, only dogs could hear the sound and would come when the whistle was blown.  Was this really possible?  I dreamt about buying that silent dog whistle and then having access whenever I wanted to these amazing creatures.  In my mind with the help of the whistle, dogs would follow me around and we’d get along famously, walking through the streets, tails wagging, me smiling.  This was the fantasy of my 8 year old brain and it went on for a very long time until I realized that I had no access to the money needed to buy that dog whistle.  Money was, in fact, at the center of why I couldn’t have a dog (or at least that’s the story that my mother perpetuated to keep us dog-free).  My mother claimed we didn’t have enough money to feed or care for a dog.  So while my love of dogs bordered on obsession, I grew up thinking that dogs were worthy of homes who could not only shower them with love (which I would absolutely do), but who could pay for food and medical care (definitely not us).

Dogs filled a lot of my thoughts and time as a child.  Well, dogs and my fantasy of what my brother and I would do if we won the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes that we entered every time the envelope came in the mail.  My plan was something along the lines of buying a lot of dogs and a place big enough to keep them.  When I wasn’t chasing down dog owners to pet their four-legged friends or dreaming of the good fortune that could come to me by way of a dog whistle or winning the sweepstakes, I was learning about dogs.  Our local library had a pretty good selection of books about them which kept me occupied in my younger years and as I got a little older and started going to the mall (it was the 80s after all) I realized I could learn about the different breeds, how to train dogs, and their general medical care by studying books.  I had an illustrated, “Take Care of Your Dog” book that I used to guide my imagination with my stuffed animals to pretend they were sick so that I could care for them.  Kind of weird, right, but these were the days before organized sports, Netflix, and the internet.

Besides the loose city dogs and dogs walked by responsible pet owners, I had the good fortune of growing up next door to a beautiful Collie.  Her name was Girl and I’m still convinced that she smiled whenever I squeezed my fingers through the chain link fence that separated our yards so that I could give her a good scratch behind the ears or on her bottom.  Other animals were a bit harder to get access to in the inner city.  When my dad would have my brother and me for the weekend, we might visit with friends of his that had snakes (ugh!) or maybe a bird (better) and sometimes even cats (good) and dogs (best!).  For some strange reason, my dad thought taking his 2 young kids to an animal shelter was a perfectly acceptable way to spend time with them.  Reminder here–animals were declared off limits by my mother so we knew there was absolutely no way a dog or any other animal that required care was coming home with us.  We were only at the shelter to window shop and visit.  Visit we did!  There were guinea pigs, rats, cats, rabbits, and dogs at shelters.  For a child who loved dogs and a nearly all animals, the shelter was the best place ever!

At some point in my childhood, a friend of my mother’s told me that I should be a veterinarian.  She made this declaration after observing the pure bliss that came over me when spending time with animals.  In fact, I’m fairly certain her recommended career field came after watching me literally roll around the floor with a Golden Retriever for many minutes, possibly an hour.  “Veterinarian” required a bit of simplification for the younger me to “animal doctor”, but once they explained that, it was like the whistle all over again–the idea stuck and made perfect sense.  When I played with a friend who lived on our street, she lined up her dolls so she could be their pediatrician and I lined up my stuffed animals to be a veterinarian.  Once, we even argued over her insistence that a pediatrician would absolutely not share a hospital with a veterinarian and, therefore, I had to either become a pediatrician, too, or move out of her office (really her bedroom).  I moved out.  I stayed angry at her for many long minutes.  Such was the serious business of my desire to care for animals by becoming a veterinarian.

For many kids, the idea of becoming a veterinarian enters their mind at some point in childhood.  For most of these kids, interest fades as they are exposed to other careers or as they realize the long and rough road based in science that lies on the way to becoming a veterinarian or as life itself throws curve balls.  No matter the final career choice, those of us who’ve been touched by animals in childhood have a special bond that stays forever.  We know that our animal friends will always be there for us and that a strong relationship with an animal can bring out the best of who we really are in a way that relationships with humans cannot.  With three dogs of my own and a career in veterinary medicine,  I must admit that not much has changed about my relationship with dogs.  I still approach strangers and ask to pet their dogs and I’m instantly happy when the dog wags its tail or smiles back at me.  About the only thing that’s changed is I now ask under the guise that this interaction if “for my kids”.  We all then happily join in celebrating dogs together.