I’m a dog person.

Growing up, my family always had a dog. First was the elderly dog who was around long before me. Next came the puppy when my brother and I were in elementary school. Then another dog to keep our aging puppy company.

And then I grew up. I graduated college, landed my first job, and was on my own in the big city. Life without a dog was lonely.

When I say dog person I mean that I come from a long line of people that are devoted to animals who are equal members of their family with the humans.

The crazy kind (just to be clear).

My husband is also a dog person and two months after proposing he was ready to officially start our family…with a dog.

I have really bad allergies. Cats are the toughest (although the lure of watching MTV while cat sitting had me suffer through puffy eyes in my teens) followed by dogs. By happy accident, all of our family dogs were non shedding.

My husband and I wanted to rescue a dog. We decided we’d go to a shelter and see if any dog matched our criteria. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. We wanted to save all of them. We went to four shelters and had no luck. It was tough to walk away but we were determined.

And at the fifth shelter, we found her.

This is my Libby. She is my sweetheart. She’s kind of bitchy (but so am I) and she is my spirit animal. A companion in every sense of the word, this little girl is my shadow. We rescued her about three years before we had our first child. She has been by my side through everything.

I will never buy another dog because now that I’ve rescued once, I’ll rescue again.

If you want a dog, I hope you’ll do yourself a favor and visit a shelter. In my heart, I think she knows we saved her. But the cliche is true, she kind of rescued us.