So my wife, Monica, had a cat well before I came into the picture.
Keep in mind, I’m not a cat person at all. But I have come around to loving our cat, Jack, and I take good care of him.
It doesn’t bother me that he mostly keeps his distance unless Monica is away. Then he wants a little company.
Back in 2021, I pitched the idea of getting a puppy. Although Monica never had a dog before, she was all for it.
I knew it was going to be our dog, but deep down I thought he or she would be mostly mine.
Monica had Jack. The dog would be my buddy. We would go on runs together. We would play fetch. I would come home and get that heartwarming greeting that dog owners know all too well.
Meet Porto. He’s a standard Goldendoodle. He’s 50 pounds of joy and energy. We brought him home Christmas 2021 when he was 10 weeks old. I couldn’t wait to prove to Monica that dogs are better than cats. But Porto ended up proving something else.
Ok so now I will get to the point.
Although Porto loves me, I’m absolutely certain that Monica is his favorite. And I don’t like it. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
If I let Monica tell it, she will say Porto likes us both the same. But she does seem to take delight in what I see as his expressions of preference.
When Monica and I come home, Porto always goes to her first and soaks up the hugs. It’s like I don’t even exist.
Recently, I thought Porto was going to come my way after I let him out of his crate. You can imagine the glee on my face. I was prepared to gloat. I thought the tide was turning in my favor. But as I reached down to pet him, he did a head fake and went around me to Monica.
I’m writing this from the couch. And guess where Porto is? Not by me.
Earlier this week we ran out of dog food. I had to drive 20 minutes to the nearest pet store that was open. In addition to dry food, I bought a few cans of wet food, which he loves.
Did that change anything? Nope. I can’t even buy my way into being his number one or at least his co-favorite.
Even though I may not be his favorite human, he will always be my dawg.