Must Love...Dogs?

Never once, in all my years as a dog owner, did it ever occur to me that my owning dogs would be a dating turn off. But this year alone, the dogs have been dealbreakers with 3 guys. I even read on some eHarm discussion boards that if a profile mentions cats or dogs, the guys don't even bother. WTF. I'm keeping my profile the way it is. I'm not going to wait to tell anyone that I have pets and that they are important. That's just setting myself up for more frustration.

So I feel like I'm walking around with two handicaps: the weight and the animals.

Good thing one of the handicaps can be altered a bit right? Pretending the animals are children....riiiight!

I thought I would be able to walk on smoothly after the weekend's screw up, but it hit pretty hard last night. It didn't help that Chicago continued to email me all day long, apologizing all over the place for overstating his interest and then withdrawing it so quickly, and asking me if I would still like to be "friends who go to Vegas together."

Let me see. Lonely guy meets lonely girl. Lonely guy likes lonely girl but doesn't like lonely girl's environment. Lonely guy still seeks to make a friend who could meet outside of lonely girl's environment.

I mustered up a response: "Sure, you can treat me to Vegas." That oughta put the kabash on that kind of talk out of him. Or maybe I'm going to Vegas soon. Dunno. At the moment, don't care.

I went searching through the initial communications with Chicago. I wanted to make sure I remembered things correctly, and I wanted to see if I could learn from the experience so as not to take a misstep again. But I didn't find any slip-ups. I even asked this in my 1st questions:

Are pets an important part of your life?

A) I have several pets and they are like family to me.
B) My pet is a nice addition to my life, but no serious emotional attachment.
C) I don't own pets but I don't mind them either.
D) I am not a pet person.

He chose C. Turns out his answer was based on his limited experience: 2 older dogs and 2 cats. But they weren't "hyper" apparently, as my dog is a full-on ADHD case. Does anyone have any Ritalin they can spare?

Of course, it dawned on me, like a hangover, what people like me need is a pet-friendly dating site.

Million dollar idea, right? I'll be raking in the bucks.

Wrong.

They already exist. And rather pathetically, I might add.

I've joined the two free ones. Not going to shellack out fundage set aside for doggy Ritalin on a paid pet site instead.

Pet Passions

Must Love Pets

So far, the guys in the local area (all 5 of them) fall into two very distinct categories:

• They mention sleeping in bed with their ferrets or squirrels. (Yup, not making this up.)

OR

• They expressly state they want a woman who weighs about 140 lbs.

I'm laughing so I don't start crying. Damn, but we all have preferences, don't we?

I've gotta get back to the gym.