Your dating luck has finally hit treasure. Your new crush checks all the boxes: They’re attractive. They’ve built a fulfilling career for themselves. You share a harmonious perspective about life. Lastly, they’re able to speak in complete sentences. (A rare skill in 2024.) You’re aware that they have a four-legged child. What you possibly overlooked is how vital that pet is to their lives. After a handful of promising dates you realize that if you don’t like - or love- their pet in the same way that they do…YOU will be shown the door. The decision will be an easy one. Pick up your expectations on the way out.
Last week I mentioned an article about singles who have tabled dating for the time being in order to devote time to other areas of their lives. Holistically. Carefully structuring aspects of their existence that don’t pertain to capturing romantic love. In place of swiping forever and-or defining their entire reason for breathing based on who accepts their peculiar sense of humor or a partner who drops a nuclear fart under the comforter in the middle of the night, they’ve chosen their pets as their main companions.
I’m continuing from last week as I’ve been unable to contemplate another journal entry apart from this subject. I wondered whether I’d choose my future pet over a partner in the scenario I mentioned at the opening.
I would. I think. No, I…think I would. I’m not sure.
Unless…Janelle Monáe, Ana de Armas, or Anna Sawai was the woman asking me to put my future husky up for adoption. I’m sure I could find a generous guardian for my fur baby. Right?
This is Los Angeles. People are dying to pick up something and stay committed to it without dumping it on the side of the road once the trend ends. That never happens.
Other than the mind trip I just went on in the middle of what I hope to be a coherent piece to read, the pet stays. I’ll repeat it silently until I believe.
Would you choose your pet over the possibility of love?
Pet parenthood is just as taxing and consuming as caring for human children. I don’t have kids but those among us that sink their lives into the well-being of their pets aren’t any less intense about the life under their care. It is a full-time job as well.
Do some pet owners go too far with their degrees of affection for their pets?
Possibly. However, don’t humans act identically?
Especially the parent types that schedule their kid’s day from sunrise to sunset. Micromanaging bathroom breaks, caloric intake, and play dates? You know that person. You’re probably nodding because it’s a description of you. For some reason or fifty, you’re wired to behave this way. It’s your slice of normal and you don’t care if it’s strange.
Have you ever considered if loyalty to your pet is costing you a shot at love?
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