Dog

I knew the dog was going to be a problem before anyone else. She had a name, but I only allowed myself to call her Dog. If I got too attached, Dog would never leave our lives and as much as I wanted her to stay, she couldn’t. If our landlord realized we had a dog, we would be evicted immediately, and I knew we couldn’t afford any other available housing. 

On the other hand, I knew Jennifer would never forgive me if the dog didn’t or couldn’t stay. She was attached and realistically, so was I. But Dog was big. Dog was loud. Dog needed a lot of attention. Our landlord, Mark, was a stickler for rules and our lease clearly stated no pets were allowed. I knew the time would come when Mark showed up unannounced and I made every possible plan to make sure Dog could be shut away so he wouldn’t find out about her. 

What I wasn’t expecting was for Dog to win over the entire apartment complex. Everyone loved her and everyone wanted her to be theirs. After a while, I knew we couldn’t easily get rid of Dog, but luckily everyone came together to make sure Mark would never find out about her. Everything with Dog seemed to be going well until Mark really did show up unannounced. That was the day Dog’s name became official. Bruiser. At least it was better than Biter.