Remember how I told you I was completely and totally in over my head when I decided to get a dog?
I was.
I was young, not making very much money, and overwhelmed by all of my new responsibilities. I didn't have the energy. I knew a dog was in my future — I just didn't realize how quickly that future would arrive.
About two months into my second year of college, I started to talk about getting a dog with my Boyfriend at the time. We'll call him Boyfriend. I was getting in the swing of things, and my schedule was starting to look manageable, so after lots of encouragement from Boyfriend, I started looking for a dog. Not just any dog, either: a Belgian Malinois.
Malinois are special. In fact, they're the dog of choice for our own military and other organizations who use them for the detection of drugs or bombs and for personal protection (that's how Boyfriend discovered them — he worked with them during his time in the Air Force).
Malinois don't behave like, say, a toy poodle. They're incredibly intelligent. They're also hyperactive and have the potential to be destructive if they're not cared for properly. We knew that in order to take care of a Mal like it deserved to be taken care of, it would need lots of exercise and mental stimulation. In other words, lots of my TIME.
Individually, time wasn't something we had. Boyfriend worked long, crazy hours and I was working and going to school. In my free time, my hobbies included sleeping and ... well, sleeping.
But we worked opposing shifts - he in the daytime and me at night. And the manager of my apartment gave me the go ahead to get a bigger dog than my leasing contract allowed. We thought: Maybe this is just crazy enough to work.
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