We're not pet people, but our young daughter fell in love with our nanny's dogs years ago. The nanny never brought her dogs to our house, but sometimes she'd pack up our daughter and take our daughter to her place. There was enough contact for our daughter to be certain that there was nothing she wanted more than a dog.

COVID came and we stopped paying for the nanny, but our daughter still went to her house to hang out from time to time. The nanny was an older lady who lived with her 2 aging sisters. The trio claimed that having our daughter hang out for a few hours on a summer day or a weekend was fun for them so they invited her over to their place frequently. The more our daughter was around those dogs, the more she begged for a dog.

We promised a couple of years ago that we would get he a dog, but explained that only dogs that meet specific criteria could ever be considered. The dog had to be small with no potential for much growth. The dog couldn't shed. We have a clean house and don't want to change that with the addition of shedded fur. The dog had to be on the more hypoallergenic side. We've got one son who has seemed to be very allergic to animals and we wouldn't want him to suffer over an animal that's allowed in the house.


TL;DR

We delayed and delayed and delayed until finally ending up with a little Yorkie puppy a month ago. So far, the expense of the dog hasn't been an issue. I imagine it could be eventually if we end up paying for silly things like surgeries or whatever. We paid so much for the little guy that just letting the little bugger croak would feel like a waste of money. We've potentially started a vicious cycle.
My wife spends hundreds of dollars on clothing every month so maybe we could cut back in that regard if it were ever necessay. How many jackets does one person need anyway?

The little bugger likes to nibble at our feet and shins. It's aggravating. He's only a few months old so maybe it shouldn't be much of a worry yet, but it concerns me. So far, our plan has been to keep him locked in a crate whenever anyone visits. We sort of blew that on Thanksgiving, however, so I don't know if we'll be as true to that rule going forward as we had planned.

If a guest ever kicks our dog for being annoying, I don't expect I'll have an issue with that.
It's just an animal.