Opposites attract

This is a cute story written by Anita Doberman. This is in no way the Old Man and I. ;)

Opposites attract. This is true in many areas of my life and especially in my marriage, where my husband and I have different personalities. I am the more exuberant type, and he is more subdued. I am more fun - or what he may say impulsive. And he is the more boring – he may say rational.

I noticed that our differences have enriched our lives, especially when one of my childhood dreams was realized for a few short but intense hours. I have always wanted to own a German Shepard, named Rex. When I was growing up in Italy I used to watch this show about a police dog named Rex who chased bad guys.

Then one morning, I opened my door and found a puppy version of Rex staring up at me. He didn't have a collar and there was no one in sight. A miracle! I couldn't contain my excitement and ran inside the house yelling to my children that I had found a new puppy, named Rex. We all rushed into the bedroom where my husband was trying to sleep after a long overnight flight, and told him that a German Shepard had magically appeared at our doorsteps, and that we had to keep it, never mind we have two dogs and a cat.

As a military man would do, he sprung into action and made a very efficient sign "lost puppy inquire within" and called animal control, while the kids and I chased the puppy around and yelled Rex come, Rex sit, Rex roll over (not that these commands meant anything to the puppy who kept running in circles).

I really wanted to keep Rex. I was hoping he didn't have an owner, so I told my husband that it was simply meant to be that I found Rex. Trying to temper my excitement, my hubby told me that a) Rex was female, and b) she had an owner somewhere. But I pressed on with my dream, making the only concession that I could by calling her Rexa.

As I watched my husband lay out a plan to find the dog's owner, I realized that we couldn't keep the dog, and I had to focus on finding the owner -- a.k.a the right thing to do.

I focused on the fun aspect of finding the puppy while he focused on the practical aspect of finding the owner.

When my husband is deployed I am not as care-free, but because he was there I enjoyed my childhood dream of playing with Rex – ok, Rexa.

After a couple of hours, someone knocked at our door, and the owner (a very nice lady) recognized the dog, "Maggie," immediately. To my dismay, the dog clearly recognized her too.

My husband will deploy again soon, and he is clearly concerned – with some reason – that he'll return to find a house full of puppies. More likely though, when he leaves I will have to go back to taking on full control of our home and my impulses – including all the boring rationality involved.

Hum, it's much more fun when he's home.

To see this story on Military.com, Click Here!