What I've learned from my dogs

Every man I have ever been with has told me that I was going to be a horrible mother because I hated dogs. They scared the living crap out of me. They were huge, slobbery beasts that I knew at any moment would bite me. I used to get furious at this acusation. I grew up the oldest of 7 kids, all of my friends have kids, have babysat since I was 12, so I've never NOT had kids around me. So how is it that if I was going to be such a horrible mother that i've never killed or seriously harmed in any way any of the kids around me? (okay, so my nephew when he was three was playing with his hotwheels and stood his purple car that coincidentally looked alot like my car, made it crash into another car and said 'oh sh$#!'. does that make me a bad mother??) I've met alot of women in the past ten years that i've known more about how to handle babies and kids than they did. What in the heck did me hating dogs have to do with it. Well, Vinnie loves dogs. Especially rotweilers. Talk about jumping into the shark tank. So I agreed, with the condition that we get one as a baby, so as it grows up hopefully it will realize that i'm the mommy and not a chew toy. So we got our Daisy, who is now a year and a half and my little cow. She is so affectionate and sweet. She loves to cuddle and licks so much that you'll need at least 3 showers to get off all the slobber. I never expected my reaction to be as strong as it did, and i think i shocked Vinnie when, 7 months later, I told him I wanted to get a companion dog for Daisy. So we got Duke. (get it?) It is now 15 months later and I can definately say to all those men who claimed I would be a horrible mother, HAH!! I have learned patience (standing outside in 30 degrees with a puppy who just had to find that perfect spot to pee at 2 in the morning), compassion (when my stepdaughter left and Daisy spent two days wandering around the house whining looking for her), humor at the little things , letting the little things go, and how i get a panicked feeling in my stomach when i think something might be wrong with them. Yes, my dogs have taught me to be a better mother, they've matured me, and made me learn to love with more love than i thought possible. Now I cant' wait to have a baby to share this house of love with.