Must love dogs

It's easy to fall for an animal that loves you unconditionally.

I generally don't have the patience or the extroversion to be a "dog person." That almost changed last week, however.

Driving down Byers Road, I came very close to hitting an escaped Boston terrier. Fortunately, his owners found " Tux" at the vet where I'd left him. For a night, I considered introducing a dog into our house -- and its probable effect on Inky and Precious.

Scratching. Snarling. Puffy fur. Tantrums. Wounds? Blood? Barking...sounds fun, doesn't it?

Our tuxedo cat thinks he runs the establishment, and I haven't been able to convince him he doesn't make our rules.

I've noticed that lots of guys on the dating sites allude to deep relationships with their dogs --often deeper than those they seem to have with their children. Or perhaps simply less complicated ones.

That's by no means true for all of them. Lots of them love their canines and their kids.

But it does scare me a little. It's challenging being a divorced parent, particularly one who might not see much of their kids. It's hard to deal with the sometimes pissy side of adolescents, anyhow. When you have to do it on your own, or at a distance, it's ever more difficult. And easier to blow off.

Married or single, we only have so much energy. When it's tough to love our kids, when our kids are hard to love, do we seek gratification in other, lesser loves? Does it then become less critical to apologize, to resolve that fight, to deal with the ex about weekends and finances and schools?

I'm as much of an absolutist in my own way as are the four-footed infatuates.

Must love kids. Your own.