If you want to see me cry, it's as easy as taking me to see the dogs and cats at the shelter. And yes, I do mean both dogs and cats. I say that I'm a dog man, but if I'm being completely honest, that's because my allergies refuse to let me be a "dog and cat" person.

I made a trip to the Humane Society in Springfield, Missouri to start looking at dogs to get an idea of what I want to adopt this summer when I move into my new place of residence. While it was absolutely a fantastic trip, I may or may not have cried about five times. In my defense though, twice were definitely because of my allergies and not because the cats were purring extremely loudly as I pet their cute and cuddly little selves.

The first time I cried was when my allergies exploded as we looked at cats when we first arrived. I kid you not, walking in and being confronted with all of those adorable cats and kittens and all of the allergens that my body isn't used to being around was kind of tough. Everything itched and my eyes wouldn't stop watering!

The second time I cried was when I walked into the land of dogs. There were so many dogs, it was like a dream come true.. but seeing them all in cages like that, most looking pretty sad about the state of their lives? that was pretty hard to see. That was what moved me to for the second time today.

The third time that my tear ducts went into action was as I left the first dog room and heard this adorable little Labrador mix named Missy start whining. It wasn't your normal everyday whine either, this whining tugged at my heartstrings in ways that I didn't know possible. There was some strange wobbling in the whine that just made it impossible for me to walk away without going back for one more lick through the bars.

The fourth time I cried was when I decided to take Missy out to play and go for a quick walk. She was super amazing and, when I say on the pavement, she climbed right into my lap and made me the happiest person in the world for at least a minute and a half until we both realized that it was way-way-way too hot out for us to be in such close proximity. Those were tears of utter and complete joy.

The last time that I cried was when I held this adorable little fat cat named Firewhiskey. Side note, who the hell names a cat after the singular worst drink concocted by mankind? Anyway, that's not important.

I picked this little chunker up and he just melted into my arms. He was so soft and snuggled up and, other than my eyes and nose and skin protesting non-stop, it was fantastic. Almost immediately he began purring and, just like he melted into my arms, my heart also melted. My eyes definitely weren't just watering from the allergies.

All-in-all, I had a fantastic day. I got to hang out with a ton of cute, adorable, wonderful animals and I cried way less than I expected to!