A Pup in a House with Allergies

**Disclaimer: I am not a Medical Doctor and do not pretend to be. This post is for entertainment purposes as well as to share with you my experience having a fur-baby at home with a loved one who is allergic to dogs. Please never bring a pet home without consulting with your loved one with allergies and, if necessary, with their doctor to make sure everyone is safe!

Welcome back furends from both Athena and I! It's always great to have you all back for another time together and for me able to share with you another first-time pawrent story! This one is going to be an interesting one guys! With this post, I'd like to take you all back to last week... if you have not read my post for last week, I highly suggest that you please take a few minutes to do so that way, this one will make more sense ;). With that being said and the scene set, let's begin!

Now, as I said, if we go back to last week's post you will remember that crate training Athena was a bit more trickly for me due to the fact that my husband is allergic to dogs. During this process, it was slightly challenging to figure out where to put her crate in order to keep everyone safe. I know this might have shocked a lot of you that have been following this journey because I've already mentioned that Thena is not the first dog my husband has had. In fact, he has 5 including Athena and another one that has unfortunately crossed the rainbow bridge :'(... RIP my Dear 'Oopy! With this post, I'd like to address how we have gone about this situation as this little unconventional family.

To start off, before Thena came home, my husband and I had a lot of discussions about adding a sweet furry little companion to our family. He was never against it; however, it was always a concern for us and brought forth the fact that he is affected by being close by to furry furends for too long. Mind you, he does not pay attention to that all the time, even if I remind him that he is allergic, and he still goes about his merry way enjoying his time with all the ones he has as he loves them beyond words... Gentlemen! Am I right?! LOL!

Anyway, as a couple, we both wanted to find a common ground with this decision: as a husband he really wanted me to get an Emotional Support Animal (ESA) to help me get better with my Mental Health and I, as a wife, wanted to make sure that if I did that, I would be able to keep him safe and sound as well. After many discussions we reached a verbal agreement, one of which, to this day, I do my best to uphold on my end. To start off, we agreed that vacuuming our room and our home more often would be essential and very helpful to him, this way, we could avoid the allergens piling up on our carpet too quickly. We also agreed that Thena would ONLY be allowed on our bed for perhaps a brief nap or brief cuddle, and she would not be allowed to touch our sheets. We also discussed the fact that Athena would only be able to sleep on our bed, on my side, in nights where my panic/anxiety was severe and out of control. Lastly, we agreed that we would have hand sanitizer in the room that he could use to disinfect his hands if he gave her kisses and that we would have allergy medicine available at all times in case he needed them (Thank you Allegra!... *Ahem* not sponsored *Ahem* LOL!) ;)

So far, the journey has been going well for both of us. While there are days when his allergies may be more triggered than others, we always make sure to keep an eye for the first sign of those flare ups and we work immediately to resolve them: whether it be me taking Thena out of his arms, giving him allergy medicine, having him go wash his hands/arms, putting Thena in her own bed, or vacuuming.

So, you may be asking yourself, "Isabelle, why the heck are you sharing this with us? How does this concern us?" Let me elaborate. With this post, I hope to shine a little bit of light and hope that, for those of us that want to have a fur-baby at home yet have loved ones who are allergic, can do some research and SAFELY and POTENTIALLY work towards that goal without putting them in harm's way. There came a point, i'm not going to lie, where I kind of felt that this potentially might not work or might not be the best decision; however, I have learned throughout this process that education and communication goes a LONG way. I know it may not be possible in all cases for this to happen as allergy levels can vary in different situations and in different people; however, this post is a reminder to at least look into your particular situation before you give up. There may be a way that you can keep your loved one safe and healthy and still be a proud pawrent. If not, I can guarantee there are many of us pawrents out there that would be ECSTATIC to share the love of our fur-babies with you! Keep on keeping on, allergies do not always mean the subject is completely out of the question.