How did you convince spouse?

[Latifah]

I didn't start getting dogs until I'd been away from my husband for a few months.

I did have the thought that we would get back together, so for the first dog, we talked about it, but he kept finding reasons to put off getting a dog.

So, I went out and got Kali (Japanese Chin) and just suprised the kids with her. She was lonely without her littermates, so I started looking for another dog. When I found Jennie at our local shelter, I just called to let him know I'd gotten another dog. With Allie Bear (Yorkie), I just had him ride with me to get her. Once he saw her, he fell in love with her.

My husband is the type to "show" support in the beginning, but then completely show his butt in an argument. So in the end, it didn't matter to me what he thought since we no longer live together and since we're not getting back together, it really doesn't matter.

Though a couple of days ago he went into a long diatribe about me and not including him in my decisions. I just hugged and kissed my kids and dogs and didn't think another thing about him lol.

I'd try the getting two more thing too.

[Lucia]

Congrats on gettin your new puppy, cant wait to see some pics! My DH didnt take any convincing...I told him I was going to buy a yorkie and he said OK! xxx xxx

[bildio]

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".

[ambocken]

We had a hamster prior to getting Gracie, when he died it was devastating for us. He was as much a part of the family as any other animal could have been.

That's when I started suggesting that we should get a dog. We searched online at all different kinds from shelters (I wanted to rescue a dog and not get one from a breeder). Any dog I found he didn't seem interested.

Then one day he was looking online and found Gracie. He said she "was smiling" and the rest is history! We drove almost 3 hours to pick her up and we had never met her or even knew much about her. It didn't matter because my husband had already fell in love with her!!

[Ashley V]

Originally Posted by ambocken

We had a hamster prior to getting Gracie, when he died it was devastating for us. He was as much a part of the family as any other animal could have been.

That's when I started suggesting that we should get a dog. We searched online at all different kinds from shelters (I wanted to rescue a dog and not get one from a breeder). Any dog I found he didn't seem interested.

Then one day he was looking online and found Gracie. He said she "was smiling" and the rest is history! We drove almost 3 hours to pick her up and we had never met her or even knew much about her. It didn't matter because my husband had already fell in love with her!!

Some people make think it's silly to cry over a hamster, but I've had 12 and cried when everyone of them died. My first one was most special to me. I was a very shy child and we moved to a competely different state with a completely different culture than what I was used to so I was having a hard time making friends. I was 9. I started begging for a hamster and the search was on. We went to 5 pet stores and were going to keep searching until I found the one I wanted. He lived for 3 years and was the most amazing little thing. He knew when I was upset, he knew when I wanted to play, and he knew when I just wanted loving.

I also had one of my hamsters put to sleep. He had a GIANT lump on his side... I mean it was probably half the size of him. The vet told us it was probably cancer and asked what I wanted to do. I told them that I didn't want him to suffer so to put him to sleep and they did.

[ambocken]

Donkey (the hamster) was the same way! He would cuddle with us, loved to play and was just as spoiled as our baby Gracie is now. He was diabetic so we had to feed him fresh vegetables every day and he had to stay away from sugar. He died on the vet's exam table.

Our vet was amazing though. They made a small plaque with his paw prints and his name so that we could always remember our little guy.

[ladylawinkc]

Originally Posted by London01

Let's hear your stories. How did you convince your spouse to agree to adding a new fur baby to the family?

6 months ago I started casually mentioning getting a dog, and hubby was completely against it. He was concerned about chewing furniture and extra messes, since he does most of the cleaning.

Then a couple months ago, I told hubby that we really should get 2 dogs, so they could keep each other entertained while we're at work.

Somehow, as soon as the idea of 2 dogs came up, a panic alarm went off in his brain. All of the sudden, he caved in "Okay, okay, we can get one, but only one."

Of course, I'm secretly hoping to get another one in a few months once London settles in. (I'll post pics of London soon. She's coming home with me tomorrow. Counting down the hours now!)

Just tell him there's someone on this site - that would be me - who has one Yorkie, who gave birth to four puppies (all have new homes now) - four miniature horses, ten cats, and four big farm dogs. That should make him feel a lot better!!!!!