5 reasons why you should have a dog

Isabelle Soh
Mar 16, 2015
4 min read

With Charcoal's birthday coming up on the 19th of March, I was just thinking of how grateful we are for him.

Well, truth be told, we don't really know Le Gao's (Le: the, in french; Gao: dog, in Hokkien) real hatch day since he was a stray that was brought into the shelter but Mark decided that he wanted to buy Charcoal a new bed/leash so he needed an excuse for the shopping. He figured that 19th March should be Charc's birthday because it is right in the middle of ours. So there you have it - our dear Charcoal boy has an official birth day now.

By the way, Charcoal has many nicknames and Le Gao is by far my favourite. We call him Charcs, Charckies, Charcoal Boy and many others interchangeably so if you see a new name that remotely resembles Charcoal in this post, it's most probably just Charcoal that I'm referring to.

Anyway, in line with Charc's birthday, I thought that it would be nice to share how living with Charcoal has been and what we have learnt from the 7 months. I could go on blabbering about how cute and adorable my Charckies is and make this post as long as LOTR trilogy but I know it can get boring.

So to save you from the agony, I'm just summing it up into 5 reasons why having Charcoal (or any dog) is awesome (but not so awesome as Charcoal haha):

1. Keeps you healthy by making you exercise

Charcoal keeps us on our toes all the time. He is always the first one at the door when the bell rings and although we make him sit and stay before we open the door, he somehow manages to dash pass all our extended hands and legs (used to obstruct his way) sometimes. This usually results in an hour long hide and seek game, especially when there are squirriels outside distracting him. Charcoal loves squrriels and the only thing he likes better than these cute furry animals are squirrels running at 90km/h [ 55mph]. So we end up chasing charcoal who is in turn running after random squirrels. Think of the calories burnt, baby!

Now, what is game that you would instinctively play with a dog? Yes, you got it - It's fetch. It's such a staple that all dog owners will play that with their best friend and we are no exception. Well, except for the fact it never plays out like in the movies for us. Charckies gets too excited and does not fetch the ball when you throw it too far. Instead, he returns with a salivating mouth and stares at us, expecting a treat. So yeah, I have been fetching his balls for him and I sometimes wonder if I'm playing fetch myself.

2. Gives you a prelude for having kids

Having a dog is almost like having children. It comes with new responsibilities and requires plenty of love and dedication.

Even when you wake up to shitty mornings.

I apologise for not warning you in advance and ruining your appetites for your next meal with this shot but come on, I ain't here to just show you the one dimensional having-a-dog-is-no-sai-kang*-but-all-play picture.

*Sai Kang [Hk. shit work: 屎 sai excrement, faeces + 工 kang work; An unpleasant job or task.]

I know, I love puns too.

Bathing Charcoal is another struggle for us. He hates water, which is weird because he supposedly has some Labrador blood in him. He really hates it so much that he doesn't even want to be out playing when it is drizzling. (And we live in Seattle. Hello again, rain.)

Isn't he cute though? This picture reminds me of the Beast taking a shower in Beauty and the Beast.

Besides all these, we also have to scehdule our day around feeding times, toilet breaks and play time for Charcoal. It's funny how I find myself nodding in agreement when I hear mummys talk about revolving their plans around their kids - just that mine is all about Le Gao.

On top of that, I spend a lot of time and patience teaching Charcs new tricks.

I'm glad I'm testing it out my patience with my guinea dog and husband before the babies come!

3. Doubles up as multiple household appliances

Get a dog and save money on heater!

Introducing our very own personal feet warmer, Charcoal boy. He does it pretty often as he likes to sleep under the table and be near us.

Besides keeping our feet warm, Charcoal also doubles up as a trusty alarm clock that you can't snooze! I wished I had a video to show you how Charckies would sit next to our bed and whine and whine and WHINE whenever we sleep in. And he doesn't stop till we get up. Initially we thought that he did so because he needed to pee or poop but later we realised that all he wanted was for us to get out of bed to play!

I'm not sure if the next habit is good or bad one but Charckies gets into his "vacuum cleaner" mode once in a while and does this to the carpet.

I saw him trying to clean up spiders this way too which is TOTALLY fine by me considering how I fear living things that have 6 legs or more.

4. Encourages healthy and wallet-friendly lifestyle

Ever since having Charckies, we have had to visit places that are dog-friendly so that he can join in the fun. This meant less movies, restaurants, shopping malls (except Home Depot! Cheers to that!) and more hikes, walks and parks. While its not like I'm losing weight with my new lifestyle even though I really wished I was, at least it helps us engage in healthy and inexpensive activities over the weekend.