How adopting a dog took care of one's OCD

My husband suffers from OCD. Not a bad case of it, but enough to drive me nuts.

But everything changed when we adopted a puppy. Jake, the Chocolate lab. You see, BJ (Before Jake), PC (Prince Charming : Jeff) had a bad case of OCD and we had to had an impeccable house. I have nothing against that. But when I say impeccable house, I mean cleaning up the trims of the entire house and the windows every week. Waxing the floors every week and vacuuming the carpets every day. Yeah. A lot of work. It was nice though, to have a nice house. To be able to eat my diner on the floor if I felt like it because the floor was so clean (as if anybody would want to do that).

And then, there is AJ (After Jake). Two weeks after we bought our first house, we decided to adopt a puppy. I guess that the thought of having to pay a mortgage for the next 30 years got into PC's head, because taking a decision like that - adopting a puppy - was not like him at all. Usually, when PC wants something, he spends a lot of time online checking reviews or thinking about how things would change his life before he makes any decision.



But we found ourselves adopting a puppy from a backyard breeder that we meet in an empty parking lot.

Our lives changed overnight. Not only we had to say "Goodbye late morning in the weekend", but our house became Jake's house.

Suddenly, we had to clean up pee and poop on the nice waxed floors. Mop puddles of water after Jake went drinking (which, by the way, he still hasn't mastered the art of drinking). For me, sit on a wet toilet bowl after Jake learned that the water there was so much better than the filtered water we were giving him. Vacuum the entire house once a day because of his shedding - who would have thought that a Labrador Retriever would shed that much ! -, find toilet paper all over the place because Jake thought it was fun to unroll it...

We tried to keep the house as clean as it was BJ for a few weeks. And then we just decide to live and let live. Really. Because what else is there to do ?

My kitchen floor.

Now, a little more than a year later, PC can live with brown hair all over the floors of the house. We wipe the puddles of water once a day. When we don't think about closing the lid of the toilet bowl, we wipe it before sitting on it. And my kitchen floors... I won't even comment on them. Unless I clean, double-clean and triple-clean Jake's paws EVERYTIME he comes back inside from playing outside - which really, is non-realistic - my floors are... let's just say not clean as they use to be.

And then, there is my backyard to take in consideration. BJ we had a nice manicured grass with nice little bushes around the deck and on the side of the garage. Now, AJ... sigh... Jake likes to prune bushes...

Yeah. He ate the chair AND the table.

Having a dog really changed our life. Actually, it made PC more human, made him have a more realistic view on life. As for me, I already have a daugther and, really, after having changed diapers (you know, THOSE diapers ?) and clean-up puke, there is nothing really to faze me. As for PC, he changed so much than when Jake ate a chair, he just looked at me and said : What do you want me do to ? We'll get another one when Jake is going to be older, that's all !