By Barbara Bradley Bolen, Ph.D., About.com Guide to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Although my science-minded brain doesn’t like to admit it, sometimes it seems as if the universe has a direct hand in fate.
We were a family who thought we would never have a dog, due to the fact that we like to spend our time on a sailboat. Last summer, certain events fell in place that changed all of that.
The first thing that happened is that we met a fellow who had the exact type of sailboat that we did and met his traveling companion, a Soft-Coated Wheaten terrier. I had never seen this breed before and thought to myself that it looked like a real-life stuffed animal; a perfect-sized dog, not too little, not too big. This fellow sailor said that his dog loved sailing and was well-adapted to spending long hours aboard.
The next thing that happened is that while sitting on the beach in our favorite vacation spot, my 11-year-old son said "Mom, my childhood is coming to a close and I still haven’t had the experience of owning a dog." Don’t think that that the adorable Wheaten didn’t pop in my head, but I repeated our standard line "It wouldn’t be fair to get a dog as we spend so much time on the boat."
Three days later, that same son and I were in a terrifying car crash, as we were hit head-on as we drove home from our vacation. Thanks to air bags and front-end crumple zones, our injuries were not too serious. However, as I looked at my son’s beat-up face in the ambulance next to me, I thought "I guess I’m getting a dog."
In my post-accident inability to concentrate on work, I spent time gathering information about Wheaten terriers. They sounded fun and playful and were recommended for apartment living. Seemed like a good match for a sailboat!
Photo: Sailing on a wooden sailboat © tiarescott on Flickr Creative Commons
