A few months after Nathan and I got married he started his master's degree online. This was before I ever began my photography business and I'll admit - I very quickly got bored and lonely. As he spent long hours toiling over math problems I could not understand I filled my time with any and everything I could. Still, it just didn't seem like enough.

So in the natural course of married life I decided that I wanted a dog. My dream dog was an Irish setter or a standard poodle, but with Nathan allergic to dander and our condo with no yard, neither was an option. Instead we settled on a cockapoo and I drove about 3 hours to pick up this squirmy black puppy we found...