The dog that changed my mind

Anyone who knows me knows that I am definitely NOT an animal lover. I never grew up with any pets, other than a goldfish whom I named Star -- and who lived almost an entire year, which is a freakishly long time for a goldfish.

I absolutely despise cats, because, well, most of them look like spawns of the devil. They're also sneaky -- they like to creep up behind you and then pounce and scare the hell out of you. My apologies to all the cat lover out there, but I doubt my viewpoint on cats will ever change. I'm pretty set in my ways on that topic.

Dogs, however, are a slightly different story. I've never really liked dogs much, and as a child I was always deathly afraid of them. I'm still afraid of most large dogs, and I hate when they try to chase after me when I'm riding my bike. It might as well be a pack of wolves chasing me for as freaked out as I get by a stupid dog. And, I hate really small, yippy dogs -- the chihuahua types that yap, jump on you, and never shut up.

But I've always been willing to admit that there are some cute dogs out there. I'd just never interacted with one until my boyfriend's roommate got a dog a few months ago. At first, the dog just annoyed me because it was a hyperactive little puppy that would jump up on me every time I walked into the house. And once, when I was sitting at the computer, the dog jumped up and scratched the hell out of my upper buttocks region.

Recently, however, I've started to have a change of heart. I think it started a few weeks ago when I was again sitting at the computer and the dog jumped up into my lap and just sat there looking up at me with his little puppy dog eyes. And then a little while later I was sitting on the couch and he just crawled up next to me and sat there, watching the TV. The climax of all of this was when he curled up in my lap like he was getting ready to take a nap. It was at that moment that my boyfriend had to snap this picture.