For most, turning 21 is a huge deal. You can finally legally drink which means you can go out and have fun with friends and enjoy a drink (or two, or three…). Turning 21 means long nights out, spending all your money in one night on drinks or post bar Taco Bell, and sometimes it even means waking up the next morning sick and not remembering a thing that happened the night before. But if you’re like me, your nights consist of sitting on the couch and watching Netflix while your puppy sleeps soundly on top of you. Don’t get me wrong, going out with friends is fun but when you get a puppy, everything changes.
I have had my precious pup since he was 5 – yes, 5 weeks old - and he is now 13 weeks old and let me tell you, having a puppy is a lot of work. It takes a lot of patience to have a puppy, especially if you’re in school, have a job, or even just a busy schedule. You’ll want to take your puppy everywhere with you because you’ll feel guilty leaving him at home all alone for more than an hour, or if you leave him at home you’ll think about him the entire time you’re gone and worry that he’s mad at you for leaving him for so long. At 21, most girls are busy worrying about what they’re going to wear downtown when they go out for drinks with their friends, but if you’re a puppy owner, you’re busy worrying about whether or not you want to watch Netflix from the couch or your bed with your puppy cuddled up to you.
Baby fever is also in the air the older you get, but I’ll tell you, having a puppy at 21 is close enough to having a baby. You’ve got to keep an eye on your puppy almost 24/7 or else he’ll use poop behind chair or pee on the carpet instead of on his training pad or maybe even chew on your wooden table that your grandmother gave you and expects you to keep it in *mint* condition.
Having a puppy at 21 also proves how protective you are. You might panic over someone nearly hitting you while driving if you don’t have a puppy, but once you have a puppy and someone comes close to hitting your car or rides your bumper, you immediately go into mom mode yelling out to people how you have “precious cargo” on board or how you have a “baby” on board.
You also pay attention to every little thing about your puppy, like his moods, his poop, how often he goes potty, and even how much he is growing right in front of your very eyes. You’ll look back at pictures from 3 weeks ago and get all sad at how big he’s getting and constantly tell him to stop growing, as if he were a child.
Although you might think having a puppy at 21 isn’t worth it and that you might not have a social life, but it is totally worth it. Your puppy will become your best friend, your shoulder to cry on, your cuddle buddy, your everything. And think of it this way, even if you get a puppy, you can talk about him to every person you meet at the bar and overload them with the hundreds of pictures you took of him. He won’t mind you going out every now and then, just as long as you come home to him and show him enough attention to where he knows he’s still loved.
