Yesterday, I was driving home from work and I was thinking.  Now, that’s a dangerous thing for me to do any time of day, but it is especially hazardous when I’m driving because I tend to hyperfocus.  I can get so absorbed in my thoughts that I literally don’t hear someone right next to me calling my name.  It’s a good thing my drive from work to home is a mere 7 minutes.  After nine years of driving this route, I believe I could drive it on auto pilot with no worries.  I’m not quite ready to completely close my eyes yet when driving however in spite of the admonitions of my blind friend who says I should try it and that it is great fun.

As thoughts and minds are prone to do, mine wandered unrestrained on this particular afternoon.  I began by thinking of a pre-writing assignment I had given my students earlier this week that helped them to organize their ideas before writing.  In this particular assignment I gave the students the opportunity to choose their own topic.  I was fairly impressed with the wide range of ideas, interests and passions displayed by my students’ choice of topics.   But…on this particular day….with this particular assignment…one particular and usually very quiet, unmotivated student went right to work. His topic?   “My Dog”.  As I wandered around the classroom observing my students working diligently on their assignments, I noticed his topic and it somehow moved me.  My dog.

Much can be said about the benefits of a dog as a pet, a companion, a confidante.  I have a friend, who occasionally subs for me, who once told me that after her divorce from an abusive man many years ago that she didn’t want to date for years.  Her dogs were enough for her.  I get this.  I don’t have to dress up for my dogs.  My dogs aren’t going to make note of the zit on my nose or the fact that my hair doesn’t quite look like Jennifer Aniston’s on a given day. My dogs don’t mind if I say nothing to them.  They don’t mind if I spend hours at the computer writing.  They are always thrilled to see me and so willing to go to my defense the minute anyone dares look in the direction of our home.  I can’t feel more special in spite of the fact that I have really contributed very little other than food, water and a few wrestling matches to their well being.  They truly epitomize the idea of unconditional acceptance. 

But as I was pondering all this, my mind rambled from the writing assignment, to the one boy’s topic about his dog, to the benefits of a dog as a pet, to the many wonderful breeds of dogs there are to…the many breeds that I would not want to have as a pet.  Before I knew it, I was home and my question to all six of  my readers is this:

What kind of dog would you NOT want to have and why? 

Choose more than one if you like.  I have a couple of options.  For me, a huge dog would not work and there are some out there that are like small horses.  On the other end of the spectrum is any dog that even remotely resembles something in the rodent classification.  That, for so many reasons, is just wrong and wouldn’t work for me at all.

So, I look forward to hearing from you.  Dogs can be a man’s or woman’s best friend, but we all have our favorites and our worsts.  What is your worst pick for a dog and why?

Have fun with it!