Earlier this year, my wife and I was wondering how it felt like to have a dog. We watched some Youtube videos about puppies, how cute and adorable they were and how dogs were so smart and fun to play with. I can say that my wife is a dog person and so am I.

One day, she looked at a dog adoption website and found this one particular dog named Tatty that she really liked. I looked at the picture, he was indeed adorable. We noticed that they would have a dog adoption day in local Petsmart where this particular dog would be there. So, we decided to visit him.

We finally met Tatty. He is a 8-year old Corgi & Jack Russell Terrier. I held his leash and took for a walk. He was very mellow, calm and quiet. I immediately thought about those puppies on Youtube and how the owners were so happy having the puppies around. So, hmm… might as well give it a try.

But…

Back in Indonesia, my family had dogs and I grew up with them around the house. For years and years, I never really had to pick up after the dogs. They could poop wherever they wanted and the maid would take care of the poop cleaning duty. Now here in the US, dog owners are required by law to pick up the poop using this small plastic bag and threw it in a special trash can.

So… if I own a dog, I have to do that!? This is a daunting task for me. So I asked my wife, okay… if we really want to adopt this dog… could you please help pick up the poop? I don’t want to do this alone.

For some reason, picking up poop is really a big deal for me. “Who does that, picking and holding a bag of poop around?”

The first night!

Let me tell you now… picking up and holding a bag of poop IS NOT that big of a deal! There were bigger problems than that. Common problem of newly-adopted dog was separation-anxiety that leads to dog’s misbehavior and stress that leads to peeing in random places, property destruction or even dog’s physically injury.

This is when I realized that what I was scared the most may not be a big deal or even a problem at all. It seemed like a big deal because my perception multiplied the poop picking action to be such a nuisance and a disgusting action that I did not see that there were actually bigger issues at hand. I did not do enough research on what the responsibilities and the required maintainance are in owning a dog. The only research that I did was how cute and preferrable it was to own a dog. How fun it was.

My heaven column was full while my hell column was almost empty. In my mind, the love, the fun, and the excitement of having a dog are worth the poop picking cost that I have to pay. While in reality, there are so much more costs entailed in getting those rewards. I made my decision based on unbalanced information – and that’s why I have to suffer.