10 Reasons why I think I might be a dog person

I've been a "cat person" all my life, and I've never understood "dog people" who traipse around with their smelly, slobbery, barking, poop machines and call their dogs "friends". Now, as I close in on the two-year aniversary of the most random impulse I've ever acted on, I fear I'm slipping over to the "dark side" of pet ownership. Here are 10 reasons why:

1. When strangers fall in love with my dog, Avi, at first sight, I always hand them the leash and say "Good, he's yours," but I hardly ever mean it anymore.
2. I pick up poop from an 80-pound Chow/Golden mix twice a day, and I don't really mind it. In fact, I have this cute little lavender-colored poop bag holder that looks like a bone and spits out lavender-colored poop bags.
3. Other people's dogs are a lot less annoying than they used to be. Their kids are still a pain in the *ss though, so I'm safe on that front.
4. I taught my dog commands, and he almost always listens! He plays dead (ok, he's wagging his tail, but he still does it)! You can't train a cat like that. I've tried.
5. When Avi is off-leash at the barn, he runs around, chases squirrel tracks, checks out the creek, and then... comes back. And lies down next to my desk. Just to... be with me. With all that adventure out there, he chooses to hang with his mom. Wow.
6. Avi is a total man-magnet, and he loves Harley's. Yeah.
7. I actually spend more quality time with my cats, Nikki and Leo, now. Guilt is a powerful motivator. Plus, they get exercise when Avi chases them around thinking they're squirrels.
8. I walk a heck of a lot more than I used to. Since Avi and I worked so hard on heeling nicely, walks are pleasant and good for both of our moods. More important, I can talk to myself in public and everyone thinks I'm just talking to the dog.
9. Avi loves road trips just as much as I do. I feel safer at truck stops knowing he's with me, and he gets to pee on new stuff every time he hops out of the car.
10. Avi's energetic, and he sheds alot, and he slobbers on people, and sometimes when I take him all the way downstairs at midnight to pee he doesn't, and he barks at repairmen, and some people look at him and say "Ugh, is that a Chow?" like it's some kind of disease, and my poor cats hate him, and if I get up to get a glass of water he has to wake up, follow me, and bounce around for 10 minutes, and he goos up all my car windows, and he steals my throw-blankets off the couch... and I still love him. If that's not proof of my doggie conversion, what is?

I always envisioned myself growing old and becoming the neighborhood cat lady with a herd of kitties snuggling all over my fragile old-lady legs, tripping me up, and sending me to my broken-hipped doom. Now, thanks to Avi, there just might be a beat-up old hairy mutt in the fray, as well.