There are a lot of dog lovers out there, but anyone that’s ever been blessed enough to have a furbaby can tell you there is a BIG difference between loving a dog and adopting one.

A lot of times, people adopt based on those warm, fuzzy feelings they get when they meet a dog for the first time. Maybe they’ve got friends who have dogs and get along beautifully with them, or they want that highly praised bond so many people seem to talk about. The truth of the matter, however, is that there is far more than what meets the eye when it comes to adopting a dog into your family.

This is a fact that minor league baseball pro, Austin Conway, is all too familiar with and he decided to use Facebook as a platform to drop the truth on what it’s really like to own a dog.

On February 11th this year, just a few days before Valentine’s day, Conway posted a shocking confession to his Facebook page.

“Really hate to be making this post right now…My girl Stella is just too much to handle sometimes,” the ball player wrote in the opening of his post.

Conway goes on to explain just what makes Stella so hard to handle. Not only is she messy and annoying, but the pretty German shepherd dog is even a little food thief!

“She is constantly shedding all over my bed and clothes. Is always wanting to go outside at the most inconvenient times. The other day she even stole a piece of bread off of my plate when I wasn’t looking,” he continues.

Then Conway gets into the real meat of the situation.

He drops some hard-hitting truth when he starts talking about finding a suitable place to live for both of them.

“… it’s even harder to find an apartment to live in that will take her, since she is a German Shepherd mix. Generally, I always end up paying a higher rent, because only select apartments accept her,” he writes.

If the ballplayer is trying to make people think twice before adopting, he sure is succeeding. Even though Stella is obviously quite the handful, and an expensive one at that, Conway came to a conclusion that only true dog lovers can understand.

Stella, for all her frustrating antics and her toll on his wallet, is exactly what Conway signed up for when he adopted her into his heart and home.

“So, I have came to the decision that I will not be giving her up. I will continue to deal with pet hair on all of my belongings. I will continue to get out of bed at 6 am or midnight when she’s begging me to go out even though I just took her. I will continue dealing with a food thief. I will continue to base my living situation off of her for as long as she’s alive. And I will continue making any sacrifice I SIGNED UP FOR when I adopted her over 4 years ago. She will continue to be with me no matter what city I move to, however many children I have, or how much of a pain in my ass she can be. She’s family, and if you don’t view an animal in this same way, please do us all a favor and don’t get a pet until you do,” he concludes his post.

In a later interview with Bored Panda, Conway explains that he had been seeing a lot of rehoming posts in the days prior. He said the reasons people were giving up on their dogs were for basic, normal dog behavior and bodily functions. All of which Conway considers to be “foreseeable responsibilities and factors that should be taken into consideration before making the decision to welcome an animal into your family.”

Conway’s ultimate hope was to spread the word to would-be pet adopters that they need to be all-in BEFORE deciding to adopt, because “a pet is a lifetime choice.”

It wasn’t long before the athlete’s hopes were realized and his post went viral.

Since sharing his post a little over two weeks ago, Conway’s message has received over 800,000 interactions, including 300,000 shares. There is a reason his post is spreading like wildfire. It’s a message that everyone thinking about adopting a pet, or even those that already have one should read.

See what has so many people hitting the “share” button in Conway’s original post below.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: Austin Conway/Bored Panda