Had phobia but charmed by a puppy to love dogs forever

Sometimes I try to understand why some people who never loved dogs later turn around to love them so much that they cannot think of living without them. As a vet I have seen numerous cases where the wife or husband to the dog owner never liked dogs and later turn out to be the ones that cared the most for those dogs. I try to understand how it happens and I opened a discussion to one lady, a PHD holder in her 50s who got over her phobia for dogs. She narrated her story to me.

As a child the lady never loved animals and never had the opportunity to be with dogs and the only story about animals that she believes in the fact that they bite. One day her daughter who is about 16 years of age came home with a Lhasa Apso puppy that her friend gave her for free. Her friend’s family dog had eight puppies so she was promised one of the puppies. She refused to inform her mother about the puppy until she came home with the puppy. The lady said that she didn’t want to hurt her daughter by instructing her to take the puppy back rather she started to plan on how the puppy will be staying in a cage outside permanently.

The puppy was really small and helpless with beautiful fur but she held on to her believe that the dog will soon grow to start biting everyone. She said that she worked from home then so she would lock the puppy up either in the toilet or in the children’s room. When the children are gone to school the puppy will keep crying. She tried to ignore the cry at first although it was not continuous but very annoying. One day the puppy cried too much that she opened the door to let the puppy out. The puppy ignored her and ran to the balcony to pee and came back to her. She was so scared that she was trying to chase the puppy away from coming close to her (probably to bite her). The puppy ran to the kitchen and entered under the cabinet. She was happy.

Her phone rang and she went to answer the call in the sitting room. She was so carried away that she did not notice the puppy moving. She was still answering the call when she saw the puppy curled up and sleeping on the carpet close to her leg. She got up still on phone and moved to another seat, the puppy only raised his head and watched her leave. Within another 10mins the puppy came this time very close to her leg to curl up and sleep. She concluded the call and just started watching the puppy, the puppy just opened his eye and noticed her looking at him. The puppy yawned and laid on his side still trying to catch some sleep.

She started having feelings for the poor puppy. She went to the kitchen and the puppy followed her, she mixed milk with some cornflakes and served the puppy and the puppy delightfully cleared the food. Since then everywhere she went the puppy goes within the house. She narrated the story to her kids with excitement, the kids enjoyed the story and even helped her to touch and carry the puppy in her hands.

Since then she will be the first to make sure the puppy was well fed and cared for. When the kids are gone to school she will work for some time and spend the rest of the time playing with the puppy.

The woman ended up having 13 (thirteen) dogs with her 4 kids and she can tell you the behavior of each dog and what the dog likes and doesn’t like. There was a time I was pleading with her to sell some of the puppies her dogs had before they became adults and she refused. As I talk to you the dogs sleep on her bed and she has no problem with it. Her kids later started complaining to me and even threatened to chase the dogs away.

I’m trying to cut the story short here. There are many similar stories of some involving men whose wife loves dogs and they later became the best friends to the dogs.

I don’t know if the dogs or puppies charm people or that God has planted that love for these creatures in us. Still trying to understand it anyway.