Well for me it started in 1983 when we were discussing marriage. I told her that after we were married, I wanted a dog, a parrot, a sailboat, and an accordion. She agreed, and after we married, I got a Maltese, an Amazon parrot, etc.
Ten years later we lost our Maltese, Star, and my DW didn’t want to go through the heartbreak of losing another dog. So, she said no more dogs.
My young nephew and niece came to live with us just after we lost Star. I told my DW that a dog would be good for the children. I don’t remember if my DW ever agreed to getting another dog, but she was well aware that my 4 year old niece and I were doing research on breeds, and going to pet stores to look. After several months, we found a breeder that from the telephone conversation had just the Yorkie we had in mind. My wife didn’t want to go look. So, I loaded my mother-in-law (MIL), nephew, and niece in my van and off we went. I happily watched Squirt running around outside with his parents, and greeting the kids. The kids and I were hooked. My MIL was sitting in the van with the sliding door open. I could see her, in the distance, shaking her head and waving her arms with big “NO” signals. Suddenly, Squirt jumped into my van, ran around briefly, maybe even jumping into my MIL’s lap, and quickly exited. Next thing I saw was my MIL giving me the thumbs up. Squirt’s been with us for 12 years.
I’ll describe the Gus negotiation sometime in the future. Right now I’m focusing on my most challenging negotiation, which is a playmate for Gus (& me too). Actually, my DW, after many "Noooo's don't ask again or ---", did say YES the other day. Now I need to find the right Yorkie, and by that time I'm not sure if I'll need to reconfirm the YES. I don't think I'll push it. I'll just say, "Remember the last time I asked, you said Yes"
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