Happy Sunday! This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is a strange one – Cats and Dogs. Thank you Tina for hosting, I think I will have fun exploring this topic and I hope you won’t mind my dog statues and LCD cat. 😉

I did not have a dog growing up, in case you want to know. I’ve always have a fear of dogs and other moving, breathing things besides humans. It’s just that without an understanding and common language, it’s impossible to predict what the animal will do and with my over-imaginative brain and anxiety, that’s a scary thing to have to deal with sometimes.

I have ever befriended only one dog. Her name was Cleo and she was a Chinese pug.

When my mom, stepfather, and I first moved to Texas, we had little money and hadn’t found a suitable apartment. So we stayed with my step-father’s sister for the first few months before moving me to my step-grandparents’ house in another part of Austin. His sister had 2 dogs, one of them was Cleo the pug and I think the name of the other dog was Chloe and she was a terrier mix. I never liked Chloe because she was too hyperactive and she bites. Cleo was much more mellow even though she’s pretty lazy at times but I was told she was quite old and apparently, sleeping was what old dogs did.

It took me a while to get used to living with dogs but soon, I took a liking to Cleo and even allowed her to snuggle with me when we had family movie nights. She was warm on my lap like a heated blanket. My stepdad always used to tease, “Cleo likes you because you both have the same nose.” I have a fairly flat nose and so did Cleo. I guess it was something to bond over.

I tried to search my photo archive for a picture of Cleo but found none. Photos were precious in those days as it used film as opposed to digital.

Anyway, I never felt this way toward another dog ever again.

My mom has been wanting to adopt a dog in the recent years but I rejected her suggestions. There’s no way was I going to bring a dog into the house when my mom seems to be allergic to every little thing. I was not going to be blamed for something like a dog losing hair or something only a dog can do.