The deal was...

The deal was that certain criteria had to be met before we could get a dog:

1. Jensen had to have a separate room for his records
2. We had to have a house with a yard big enough for a dog to run around in 
3. I had to agree that the dog would under no condition, ever, be allowed in aforementioned record room or our bed

This meant that for three years Jensen experienced feelings of guilt as I frequently e-mailed him links to Petfinder.com posts of dogs in the Seattle metropolitan area (or our hometown of Reno, Nevada).
            Six months after we purchased our home, I realized the criteria had been met. I had recently started the most stressful experience of my life (also known as grad school) so decide that the responsible thing to do would be to only look at adult dogs. I get the o.k. from Jensen and the search begins.