My Biggest Challenge

About two months ago, I decided to get a dog. The idea was in my head for quite some time but I didn’t go ahead with purchasing one until that point. It was super exciting and I was so happy to receive her. She was so tiny and cute and I was exhilirated.

I went to Copeland, Ontario to find her running around with her litter siblings outside on land with big acarage. I picked her out of the bunch and paid a a little more for her than asking in good faith. She squaled on our way back that half an hour but it was a managable trip for her.

She has improved my life in many ways such as repairing my sleep heigene as my sleep has gotten much better. Having her also motivated me strongly to move from the basement unit to the second floor unit (somehow).

To complement her presence, I added another member to my family. A kitten. And adding the kitten improved my life once again. I got a gym membership and I go workout four mornings a week. However, soon after, things started to get sour. I started getting really frustrated when Dynasty, my puppy, would potty in my apartment. It seemed like however much I tried, training her to potty outside, things didn’t seem to work. She also destroys things around the house.

One time I came back home to find my sofa pillow’s stuffing all over the floor. I just lost it. She has even destroyed numerous USB-C chargers. Her elevated energy doesn’t help her case either. And I started to get fed up. The kitten, also, proved to be a nuisance. She’s way too playful for my liking and is fidgeting with too many of my things. She just jumps on the tables and plays with everything. It got on my nerves. And Dynasty kept eating from Venessa’s, the kitten’s, food. So I had to resort to placing her food and water on my dining table. Although it is adorable when Venessa comes to sleep with me on my bed at night, it sucks when she soils my bed.

I had enough of all of this and decided to get rid of them both. I called the dog breeder and asked if she would take the puppy back and she said she wouldn’t do that but that I am free to post it online to sell. I also contacted the cat breeder asking her to take the cat back and she can keep the money she said she wouldn’t mind doing that but that I can get anybody to take care of the kitten. So I posted Dynasty for sale and got many responses. To that, I had my second thoughts. I took down the ad and deceided to give raising her another try but whilst keeping a more light-hearted approach and attitude. Things got calmer now and I was able to keep my cool a whole lot more.. Or so I thought!

After that, we would have some really happy and awesome times. Heart melting times when they are both just great and awesome. Like when they just lay next to me on the couch while I watch tv. This assures me that I did the right thing by keeping them… And then there are those other times when they do something horrible. Like Venessa drops my tobacco pipe from the table and Dynasty chews it before I find out. Or when I find the stuffing of the cushion all over the place again. Or when the pooping and peeing in the apartment just won’t stop.

I thought hard and deep about whether I should be keeping them. Because, as my philosophy goes, I believe in being happy all the time. And I have achieved elevated levels of happiness for extrremely prolonged periods of time. However, these pets, the same ones I got for the sake of increasing my happiness levels and amount of joy in my life, are being a detriment to my happiness. They are brining me so much anger and frustration.

I have the understanding that the puppy phase is the toughest period of time. And that one needs to put in the time and effort to train them and that you need patience during this time as the dog becomes more and more perfect.

And thats what I want and had anticipated. I want the perfect dog and the perfect cat. It’s either they be perfect or I don’t want them at all. I also thought about the fact that a dog and a cat were not part of my vision. I had never sat down and visualized my life with a dog nor with a cat. I did, however, envision having animals as friends. And in the visual pages of my dream journal, I do have a lion cub in there, because I would absolutely love to own a lion at some point in my life. Could this be the reason why I have pets in my life now?

Like, please understand, that I value freedom as a top priority in my life, and I would see to it that my life is filled with adventure from travelling the world in a private jet, to going on cruises with my yacht. I want to be able to hop on the/a plane whenever I want. And I also want plenty of roadtrips. Would having these pets be a hindrance to my dream?

My parents assured me that these animals are doing me more harm than good. That they see my mood being shifted and I’m sad at times because of them. Especially Dynasty, she seems completely and utterly uncontrollable and they insisted I get rid of her.

So I went ahead and posted an ad yet again for the sale of my precious puppy, Dynasty and my precious kitty, Venessa. I got much less interest this time than the first time that I even dropped the price by a large margin. I was, however, prepared to give her away for free. And I entertained the individuals that showed interest in getting her for free. Except, nothing was happening. And day by day, I was growing more and more attached to Dynasty and spending a lot of time and efort training her and reading material on how to get her to be obedient. I ended up taking Venessa’s ad down even though there was interest in her because the big issue was Dynasty, and I didn’t want to get rid of Venessa before I did Dynasty. Let’s not forget, Venessa brings me a lot of happiness! HA!

Although I didn’t have pets directly planned out in my visualizations, I seem to have attracted them somehow. I know that whatever decision I make, whether to keep her/them or let Dynasty and Venessa or just Dynasty go would all be the right decisions. However, at the end of it all, I beleived that the most right decision would be to keep her and invest the time, energy and money to train her to become the most perfect pet for me. And, ofcourse, given that there are no financial constraints then they would not be a hindrance to my travelling. I can easily put my pets in pet hotels when I travel, or maybe, way down the line, take them travelling with me.

So, at the time of this writing, I am, yes, keeping the both of them, and although I am going through frustrations which are not part of my philosophy, the difference here is I do see a blissful future ahead where my pets are perfectly trained and they are well behaved and that they continuously add value to my life. This is when the investment in keeping a relationship going is worth it because you know that it’s not always going to be this way. And if it is going to stay, the time elapses at some point for me and I am not scared to let anything that doesnt keep my life happiness levels at 100% go.

Everything in my life is to serve for my joy. I bring joy to my friends and they do to me. Anyone or anything that doesn’t is surrendered and let gone of. And this doesn’t stop at pets.