A Marriage in Dogs

In my wedding vows, my wife insisted that I promise to have a dog. “A” dog. Over the years, I have kept that promise many times over. The chart doesn’t even mention Max, who was with us such a short time, he didn’t make it over an anniversary.

I will have to update this chart each year. I thought about it after I had to update the spreadsheet I have because Katie left us the day before my birthday in 2022. When you need a spreadsheet to track your pets, you have kept the promise to have “a dog.”

It was an interesting project building the spreadsheet, because most of the past twenty-two years is a blur, and all the dogs seemed to be here at once. I really couldn’t tell who knew whom or shared the house. So, I put together a spreadsheet with approximate birth dates (i.e. the date we told the pharmacy for their prescriptions), the date they actually joined the household, and the date they crossed the bridge. I then added a function to show who was in residence on any given date. That’s how I built this table.

We know Bubba’s actual birthdate because he was a wedding gift. We know Flower’s because my Mom-in-law got her from a breeder. Yes, mistakes were made. All the rest are rescues, so birthdates were approximate. Flower was actually older than Bubba, but she didn’t move in to the house until my mother-in-law moved in with us.

AnniversaryBubba
Elvis
Gilhooly
Ripley
J.
Gilhooly
Sparkplug
Ulysses
Gilhooly
Flower
“Pot”
Pesce
Murphy
James
Gilhooly
Kaitlin
Renee
Gilhooly
Rockford
J. Gilhooly
2/11/2000 (Wedding)
2/11/2001Bubba
2/11/2002BubbaRipleySparky
2/11/2003BubbaRipleySparkyFlower
2/11/2004BubbaRipleySparkyFlower
2/11/2005BubbaRipleySparkyFlower
2/11/2006BubbaRipleyFlower
2/11/2007BubbaRipleyFlowerMurphyKatie
2/11/2008BubbaRipleyFlowerMurphyKatie
2/11/2009BubbaRipleyFlowerMurphyKatie
2/11/2010BubbaRipleyFlowerMurphyKatie
2/11/2011BubbaRipleyFlowerMurphyKatie
2/11/2012RipleyFlowerMurphyKatie
2/11/2013RipleyFlowerMurphyKatieRocky
2/11/2014RipleyMurphyKatieRocky
2/11/2015RipleyMurphyKatieRocky
2/11/2016RipleyMurphyKatieRocky
2/11/2017MurphyKatieRocky
2/11/2018MurphyKatieRocky
2/11/2019MurphyKatieRocky
2/11/2020KatieRocky
2/11/2021KatieRocky
2/11/2022KatieRocky

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