Pet-Friendly People Falling in Love

Valentine’s Day Tribute Finale

We come to the end of our Valentine’s Day Tribute. This time, readers share their stories on how they met their partners. You can still add your own romantic story in the comments section of this post. Happy Valentine’s Day!

From Dog Park to Family

Lisa McElroy writes: “I am a law professor and freelance writer in Philadelphia. My husband and I met at the dog park 15 years ago. Our dogs were attendants in our wedding almost two years later. Both of those two dogs have since died, but we have two more who are like kids to us (we also have two human daughters).” You can see photos of Lisa and her family.

Love on the Boardwalk

Mary Ann writes: “I met my husband when he was a lifeguard at a beach in Delaware. I drove this little ugly green Pinto station wagon and carried my Lab/mix, Heidi, with me everywhere. My friend, Lisa, and I were having a quick lunch at an outdoor café at the beach. Heidi was close by in the car. I kept a careful eye on her. That’s when I spotted John talking to my dog. So I went over to the car. John talked about how he loved animals. Of course, I spent a fortune eating at that place until I saw him again. He asked me out.”

“We will celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary this year. Our love of animals brought us together and allowed us to open our hearts and home to helping less than perfect animals for the past 25 years. We run the Special Needs Animal Sanctuary. Not only did a dog bring me a husband, she brought me my best friend. Not many people can say they are more in love now than the day they met.”

Cat Allergies Didn’t Stop Love

Bill Rapp writes: “When my future wife, Jane, and I met, she had a cat named Seymour, and I had an allergy—without any name. When I would pick her up to go out, we would watch the hives appear on my neck and a big blister form on my upper lip. I would then talk an antihistamine and we would leave. I would be fine for the rest of the evening. As the relationship was becoming more serious, one evening I said, ‘If we’re to continue in this relationship—Seymour has to go.’ She replied, “No way!’ That was 35 years ago and two children, and the allergy vanished.”

Fond of Ferrets

Natalie Fontane writes: “I met my boyfriend, Dave, after he agreed to take some ferret food I no longer wanted from my craigslist ad. He had six ferrets at the time, and I had one. He offered to have me over for ferret play dates. A few months into our friendship, I began to have feelings for him. I saw the kindness he had for his ferrets and realized no man I ever dated had treated me as well as he treats his ferrets.”

“We began dating, moved in together a year later, then moved across the country with our ferrets and bought a house. Before moving in with him, I had only one ferret, Bartleby. Bartleby was very bonded to me, not so much to other people. But that didn’t stop Dave from showing his affection and looking out for his needs just as much as he did for his own ferrets. Bartleby had trouble with one of Dave’s ferrets named Rocket. Rocket was a bit of a bully. Ferrets have a social pecking order, and Rocket was not interested in another male in the house who might risk his alpha status, although Bartleby was never interested in showing anyone that he was important or tough. Like most ferrets, ours eventually got along swimmingly. We still have six ferrets though some of the ones alive when we met have passed away. And our lives still revolve around these ferrets and their needs.”

Sharing a Love of Dogs

Susan Pease Gadoua writes: “It was late October 2004, and I had just gotten my dog, Bijoux, who completely opened my heart. At that time, part of my job involved going to the Civic Center every week to collect data on local divorcing couples to assist me in my work.”

Michael and Susan on their wedding day with Yogi and Bijoux.

“On this particular Friday, I ran into a friend of mine and began telling her about my new dog.  She knew where I was headed and told me about Michael who was also a dog lover.”

“As luck (or fate) would have it, Michael happened to be behind the counter that day and we began chatting about our dogs.  He asked me if I’d like to meet him and his dog, Yogi, with Bijoux, of course. I accepted the invitation. Our first three dates were at dog parks and we all instantly hit it off. It was magic.”

“I knew we were an official pack when Yogi peed on my brand new couch on our fourth date! Eleven months later, we were married. That was five and a half years ago. We all adore each other but what also makes this story a bit unique and funny is my work in the area of divorce. Within a year of getting married, I started writing my first book called, Contemplating Divorce. Michael gets a kick out of telling everyone that he inspired the book, although nothing could be further from the truth! We are as much in love today as we were when we first met, and the dogs play a huge part in keeping us happy and closely bonded.”

Cat Lovers

Jackie Segers, a certified reflexologist, Reiki master, teacher, and author, met Jason at an animal reflexology course she was teaching in Seattle, WA.  She is the author of Reflexology for Cats-and Other Natural Therapies for Your Feline Companion, which was published in 2007 in New Zealand, and was picked up by a publisher in Australia in 2008. A distributor of reflexology books in Australia bought some copies, and took them over to the Reflexology Association of America conference. “My Seattle host, who runs a reflexology school, saw the book at the conference and loved the idea of being able to use reflexology for animals, so she invited me over,” she writes. “So I went all the way from New Zealand to Seattle to teach the workshop where I met Jason.”

“He was a student and we bonded over a love of cats. I live in Auckland, New Zealand, so it has been a bit of a long distance relationship. However, we are very much in love. We e-mail, phone, or text on a daily basis. He visited New Zealand in December/January and will be back for 6 weeks at the end of February.”

”The workshop was held in August 2009, and we have pretty much been together  from the end of the workshop.  I had lunch with him on the first day of the workshop and my heart melted when he pulled out a photo of his cat, Rishka, who is now no longer with us.  A man that carries a photo of his deceased cat in his wallet, wow, I thought that was fantastic. So really it was a love of cats and healing work which bought us together.”