Dear Maggie,

It was great meeting you at Colorscape over the weekend. I’m having a small problem and think I can use all the advice I can get, so I decided to write to you and get your two cents. I don’t like dogs. I’ve never wanted one in my home. My two kids have been begging for years to get one, but I’ve always said no very firmly and I like to think I’ve made it up to them in other ways.

But then, a few weeks ago, this scruffy little dog showed up practically on our doorstep. He’s a small male, some kind of terrier mix, I think. Anyway, he was scrawny and limping, and clearly half starved. I couldn’t just ignore an animal who obviously needed help, especially with my kids looking at me with their great big eyes. So I told them very clearly that while we could help this dog through his crisis, we were not, under any circumstances, going to keep him. We ran to the store for dog food and flea shampoo, and we cleaned him up and fed him. I put an ad in the paper, phoned neighbors, put up signs to try to locate his owner, but no one responded. The kids are begging to keep him. He sleeps at the foot of my son’s bed, and follows him everywhere.

I’ve started looking for a good home for Scruffles (that’s what the kids call him) and I’m sure I’ll find one. But how do I go about giving him away without breaking my kids’ hearts? How do I make them understand that I just don’t want a dog, without making them hate me for it?

Thanks for any advice you can share.

Signed,

Not a Dog Lover

Dear Dog Lover,

(Yes, you read that right.) I think you should go right ahead and give the dog away. It’s not going to make one bit of difference, because another one will show up, and if you get rid of him, another one, and then another and then another. And you’ll keep taking care of them and finding them homes and breaking the kids’ hearts, over and over and over. And the result will be that you nearly always have a dog in your house anyway.