When did I become the crazy dog lady?

It occurred to me the other day that I have become "that" person, the crazy dog lady. I always aspired to becoming the crazy cat lady in my old age. My sister and I have a plan when we are old and widowed (in general our family has been blessed with longevity)  we would move into a house (not just any house, our parents lovely beach front house) and have like 15 cats. This should be at least 40 years away.

However, at some point I became the crazy dog lady. Not crazy in numbers, but crazy about my dog. I think it started happening when Loki was dying. The extra care he required put more emphasis on the dog ownership part of my life. From there I became more dog centred, and I think the tipping point was Gemi's death. Having lost 2 dogs much too early (age 8 and 6 respectively) I realized my time with any pet was too short, so better get everything I can out of it.

You know you are a crazy dog person when:

1) You write a blog about your dog daily.
2) Most of your free time is spent reading other blogs.
3) You don't want to go on holidays/away because you might have to board your dog. So you only go to dog friendly places or just stay home.
4) You spend more money on the dog's coat and boots then on your own.
5) You take a day off to play with your dog.
6) You schedule your work day to minimize the time the dog might spend alone.
7) You take great pleasure in dressing your dog up, taking pictures and showing everyone.
8) You enter your dog in every dog contest you can find.
9) People at work roll their eyes when you mention your dog.
10) All your YouTube searches are to look for new tricks to teach your dog.
11) Your grocery list has items like "Peanut Butter for the dog" on it.
12) Your weekend plans centre around dog parks, pet stores, play dates and other dog friendly activity.
13) Instead of joining a gym or signing up for a human activity, you put your resources into your dog's class.
14) You look longingly at the pets on petfinder.com and local rescues and pray they find homes soon and imagining a time in your life when they could all live with you.
15) You spend more time analyzing the nutritional content of the dog's food then you ever have on anything you have eaten.
16) You have never had a professional picture of yourself taken, but have several of the dog.
17) Your mantle holds the remains of previous pack members, you dress the urns up and talk to them.
18) The first person you greet when you walk in the door is the dog. After maybe 5 minutes you acknowledge your partner.
19) You have given up worrying about having nice furniture, a clean house etc and only care if the dog is happy and healthy.
20) You have a crazy plan on how to get extra cash if you are ever faced with crazy vet bill.
21) Your pets are mentioned in your will.
22) Your vet is on speed dial, just in case!
23) Your vet rolls his eyes when you share some of your dog stories.
24) For Christmas your human pack members get a calendar of pictures of your dog.
25) You throw a birthday party for your dog.
26) Dog hair is your favourite accessory.
27) Your dog has a twitter account.
28) You only learned to sew to fix favourite toys.
29) You have taken your dog to be blessed (despite the fact you have no religious affiliations).

30) When you talk to your dog, you are sure she is talking back.

Is there anything else that should be on my checklist?


If you haven't please vote for Lee for Pet of the Month at:
http://www.pawsh-magazine.com/2012/01/who-will-be-january-pet-of-month.html