I'm the last holdout in my house when it comes to getting a pet.  My daughter, especially, would really like a dog.  It's not enough that one of our neighbors has a dog, a lizard, and a fish, or that another neighbor has (at last count) four dogs. 

I'm holding out on the whole getting-a-pet thing because I have asthma and allergies, and some dogs (and all cats) can aggravate that condition.  And let's face it, I think breathing is a good thing.  I don't want to stop doing that anytime soon.

Last spring I was tutoring some high-school students who had four dogs (one Basset, one beagle, one yellow Lab and one Golden) and they would make me sneeze and sniff like crazy.  I learned that it's very important for me to take my allergy/asthma medication every day. I normally don't forget, but when I discovered one night that I had neglected to take my meds on the previous evening, it explained the true misery I suffered all that day. A day later I still had no sense of smell or taste. If I ever needed convincing that it's important for me to take this medicine, now I know for sure.

So I was wondering, as I chopped the onions for the sausage and pepper sandwiches we were having for dinner,  "If you can't smell the onions as you chop them, will they still make you cry?"

My teenage son predicted that yes, they will still make you cry. He was right.  I never smelled them. But I cried.

My kids will have to be happy with our front-yard bird feeder.  That's about all the pets I can handle!

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