This is Nala, the family dog.

As you can tell from the picture, she is a bit of an attention whore a trouble maker. Actually, that’s just an understatement.

We have a weird history with pets in my house. My mother, sister, and I are all animal lovers. My mother is probably the biggest animal lover of all and she ended up with a guy who didn’t care for them. Hate is too strong of a word, my father just didn’t like them in the house or anywhere near him. So growing up we had a lot of battles about having pets. My mother would often stop by any pet store or animal shelter she passed by just to “take a look” and my sister and I were sometimes there with her. So her love for them rubbed off on us.

Somehow animals would end up getting into our house and our yard, much to my father’s dismay. We ended up adopting or fostering a number of animals, especially dogs. We’ve had a German Shepherd, two Siberian Huskies, a Chihuahua, a Boxer mix, a fox terrier, and a whole slew of mutts. At first my father would adamantly insist that the dog (or cat) had to go immediately, but I guess my mother wore him down for a while until we had to give them back, give them away or they ran away. He usually stopped at letting the dogs inside the house, so the dogs we had would almost always stayed in the backyard, unless my father wasn’t home and my mother would let them inside for a few hours.

It wasn’t always my mother bringing in animals, though. My father would feel bad knowing that my mother loved animals and he didn’t, so he would occasionally bring in a stray dog as an olive branch, I guess you could say. Nala is one of the stray dogs my father found and brought home. At the time we got her, we had already moved to a new house and this house didn’t have a fenced yard. So we had no choice but to keep her inside the house. Of course, my father didn’t like that but what could he say? Bringing her home was his idea. Instead he imposed all kinds of rules, like no dogs on the couch or on the beds, and she had to sleep in her training cage every night.

Like I said, most other dogs that we had didn’t end up staying around long, except for one which died in a car accident. Because they spent most of the time in the back yard and in our large covered patio, we loved them but probably not as attached to them. Nala turned everything upside down though. This dog has truly snuck her way into every area of our lives. Now, she is all over the couch, all over the bed, never sleeps in her training cage anymore, and never even tries to run away.

The most unbelievable part is my father actually loves this dog now. They spend just about every Saturday morning laying on the couch watching soccer together. It gets worse. We would always give our pets a designated birthday. It’s an excuse to bake them a pet-friendly cake, and a people-friendly cake too. Well on this dog’s last birthday, my father so happened to be out of town. Well, wouldn’t you believe he asked to talk to this dog on the phone? And the dog is wagging her tail while he’s talking??? Hell has frozen over. I mean, even I wouldn’t do that.

Miracles do happen, I guess.

But, really, I shouldn’t be surprised. Pets really are a gift. Dogs especially define the meaning of unconditional love. They just seem to love you no matter what, or at least they know how to forgive. They’re so happy to see you no matter how long you’ve been gone. They just instinctively know how to make you feel better, whether with some silly antics (which our dog has way too many of) or by sitting next to you and keeping your company. Or maybe it’s just an accident, but it doesn’t matter.

Dare I say it, dogs (at least) seem to possess a high E.Q. I really can’t put my finger on it. So it’s no surprise Nala won over my father. You just have to let them in a little — you give them an inch and they take a mile. : )

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