Text To My Father In Law

( Back story ) 

My wife’s step mom asked us not to bring our dogs because she’s house sitting her fathers puppy and feels overwhelmed with their two dogs on top of another puppy.

My text after 8 hours of being upset and mad because I took it personal…

I’ll miss you guys too, Buster is my therapy dog. My family hasn’t been very good role models, so growing up I have many bad memories of family gatherings. Since I’ve been with Kayleen I have tried my best to get her to spend as much time with her family as I know you guys support her and care a lot about her. I tend to drink heavier at the lake or family get togethers because I get a lot of anxiety as those kind of environments were always bad experiences when I was younger. I’ve been doing really good with overcoming that anxiety here lately but Buster has been my therapy animal for almost 8 years now. When Kayleen told me he couldn’t come. I got very defensive because he’s like our kid and knowing the comfort he gives me when I go out of my way to put myself in scenarios that cause me to be uncomfortable. It’s not anything you guys have done wrong, it’s just me being brutally honest about my situation and how I’m trying to grow from it. I’m confiding into you because I don’t want you to think I care more about our dogs then Kayleen being happy. She understands exactly where I’m coming from. My physical for the Army is the day after the fourth and I’ll be forced to be away from everyone for two days and as long as that goes well in the near future I know I’ll have to be away from Buster for 10 weeks…. That has never happened and I’ve accepted it’s necessary because I want to better our situation but I know it’s going to be very hard. I don’t want you guys to be overwhelmed but as my Father in law I thought you deserved to know the reasoning. Our dogs are like our children and Buster has been the closest thing I’ve had to a supportive male in my life since my grandpa died. I didn’t have the courage earlier to explain this but with much reflection I wanted to explain it.