What goes unsaid
I want a dog. I do not want a child. Mostly I do not want a child because I'm not ready for my body to become host to another for 9 months and all the grossness that goes with it (yea, it's life, it's beautiful, it's not in my five year plan. Sorry Moms).* Jim also wants a dog. He routinely points out, in my frequent moments of despair over dying dogless, that we WILL get one. We are buying a proper house with a yard; we are thisclose to fulfilling our goal. Except getting a dog is a BIG commitment. This is what everyone tells me when I say we want a dog. They inhale slowly, put on a grave face and say precisely that: "Having a dog is a BIG commitment." And then they elaborate: You have to feed it, walk it, groom it, train it, take it to the vet, and, get this, find someone to watch it while you are away. At this point another dog owner and/or stranger will invariably chime in with the requisite "It's nothing like having a cat" line. For all of
