Online Dating and Pets

Valentine’s Day Tribute, Part 7

By Wing Girl Kim, author of Alpha Dog, guest blogger

I met Jason McKay through Plenty Of Fish, an online dating site. I had checked out a dozen dating sites already, and decided this site would be the last one I would join. It was!

I was toward the end of researching my book, AlphaDog, Get The Bitch You Want: A Man’s Guide to Dating, by a Woman. Two of the six sections of the book are devoted to understanding personality types, and I wanted to see if Dr. Alex Avila’s Love Types system of personality matching could be utilized through online profiles. After studying Avila’s system and MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator), I realized that finding a single man with the personality type romantically compatible to my own would be difficult, especially online. His type, ENTJ (Extroverted Intuitive Thinking Judging), is a natural leader, the first of men to get married among his peers, the most innately responsible, and usually in positions of leadership at work. At the age of 37, the likelihood I would meet a single ENTJ man was slim.

After going through dozens of profiles, I found him. Unfortunately, he was separated, but not legally—and was a smoker. I didn’t think I would get romantic with him, but I had to meet him to see if his personality would match mine. It did.

Knowing that his type was most likely highly intelligent and enjoys dealing with intellectual conflict, I wrote him a message, criticizing him on the headline of his profile. He responded immediately. After 12 e-mails back and forth, we met. In spite of his marital and smoking status, I liked him and we got romantic. Three months later, he and Jojo, a pug-chihuahua moved in with Penny, a miniature pincher, and me.

Now their dogs get along too.

At the end of this month, we will have been together for a year. He filed for divorce and also quit smoking on his own, without any prodding on my part.

The dogs were competitive for several months, but recently have been sharing toys, eating out of the same food bowl, and lying down near each other. Penny is 3.5 years old, and Jojo is 14. We have to make concessions for each and demonstrate fairness between them to minimize jealousy. When I take Penny out for an extra walk since she’s a miniature pincher, I give Jojo a treat before leaving. When we let Jojo on our bed, Penny has to go in her kennel, but I give her extra kisses.