A Boy and His Dog

So last night I witnessed what was alternately the most heart-wrenching and most heart-warming thing ever. I laughed, I cried, I fell further for Not Boyfriend.
When Not Boyfriend went through his divorce (which is why we are NOT dating because he’s still getting over the whole thing – like I said before, it’s a long story) he got one of the dogs and she got one. Well, now he can’t even keep his one dog for many reasons. One being it’s frickin’ expensive to pay the ridiculous thing called “pet rent” at his apartment, but the most important thing being that he feels like he’s not doing his border collie any favors by having him cooped up in an apartment all by himself all day while Not Boyfriend works six days a week. So he’s been thinking about what to do – does he try and find Mr. Collie (by the way, that’s not the dog’s name – it’s actually a much tougher name than that, and frankly, Not Boyfriend would be appalled that I would even consider calling a dog “Mr.” anything) a family to live with, does he take him to a no kill shelter? He’s seriously the sweetest dog – he’s like 55 pounds and yet is convinced that he’s a lap dog.
Anyway, I was talking about the situation at work and one of the guys is like “we might want a border collie” because they already have one and feel that she needs a friend and so we set up a doggie meet and greet last night. We’re standing outside for like 45 minutes in totally frigid weather while the dogs frolicked in the park and there was a lot of dog personality talk and the conversation kind of turned to why he had to give Mr. Collie up. This is where the heart-wrenching/warming occurred, in case you were wondering when I was going to get to the point. Not Boyfriend is talking a little bit about why he felt like he had to find Mr. Collie a home and he totally gets choked up and is on the verge of full blown crying. This of course almost undoes me, because let’s face it, I cry at pretty much everything. And seeing a guy who is six foot four and what you would describe as “a man’s man” through and through losing it over his dog, well, it’s enough to make a wuss like me bawl like a baby and yet at the same time make me adore him even more than I already do. What I actually did was awkwardly pat the back of his neck. But seriously, anyone who has ever had a pet would understand this – he’s had the dog since he was a puppy (now he’s seven years old) and this has been his pal and his companion since he got divorced and now he has to give him up. I’ll tell you what, even my co-worker and his wife got a little teary, and they don’t even know Not Boyfriend. If something like that doesn’t move you at all, well, I’m here to tell you that you have a cold tin heart. Anyway.
The outcome of the meet and greet was that the family most likely wants Mr. Collie, and so after the holidays we will be meeting up with them to give Mr. Collie to them. And I already know that if I thought last night was heart wrenching, well, I better brace myself.