I once owned a dog and his name was Otto.

True story: Dusty & I adopted a dog for 2.5 days.

Meet Otto:

He's a lab mix puppy who is sweet and energetic.

On our initial meeting, I fell in love instantly and just had to have him.

Looking back on that fateful day, I now realize I may have rushed into the whole dog owner thing.

I wasn't ready for all of it.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR TIME TOGETHER:

• Otto cried a lot (granted I'm sure it was due to the abrupt switch of homes, but it still got to me).

He cried in the morning, during the day, at night, if Dusty took a bath, if I did laundry, if we took the garbage out, if we were all sitting and watching tv...basically he cried constantly.

The only time Otto did not cry was if we were on a walk...Otto got lots of walking in during those 2.5 days.

• When Dusty would sit on the couch, instead of walking around to the front of the couch, Otto would leap from behind and jump over Dusty's head - always entertaining...especially because Otto's jumping skills hadn't been fine tuned yet, so Dusty got his fair share of knocking around.

• Otto loved Gray...like wouldn't leave Gray alone loved him.

It was constant kissing, tackling, and playing with those two.

Gray would often say 'I love Otto', but then the next minute needed Otto away from him immediately...the kid needed to breathe once in a while...I completely understand.

I needed to breathe too - having a dog is stressful. 

Huge red flag right there...Kassie is not ready for a dog.

• Okay, on more of a positive note - every day that passed, we fell more and more for Otto.

He progressed leaps and bounds while we had him.

The first time we took him to the dog park, he layed under our legs and needed to be near us the entire time.

The second time - he LOVED it...he was running everywhere, played with all of the other dogs - he was like a new dog.

• When we first got him, he didn't have a clue how to play fetch...but by the end, he was an all-star at fetch and could do it for hours.

• We also discovered that Otto doesn't run...amazing.

We sat out on the porch and Otto didn't need a leash - people would walk by with other dogs and it didn't even faze Otto.

Dusty did yardwork and Otto just followed him around.

He really is a great dog.

-So, what did we do with Otto?

We found him a wonderful home with major dog lovers as his owners.

They fell in love with instantly, said he had intelligent eyes, was gorgeous, and they couldn't wait to add him to the family.

They have a doggy door and a fenced in yard, so their dogs can roam and be free all day and night.

Otto must be so happy there.

Dusty and I were both honestly sad to see him go, but it was the right decision for us at this point.

Luckily, the new owners said they would email us updates and pictures :)

Well, lesson learned...we'll chalk this up to another experience.