Author's note: One thing that always bothered me about the show was that not only did no one have any pets, except for sweaty creepy meth dealing ferret guy, and that rat dog Skeeter who was in two episodes and then apparently eaten by a coyote, no one had a dog.

Anyway, we all know that Coach Taylor would have a dog. Or dogs. This is an AU story of how the Taylor's came to have a dog.

"We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment."

-George Eliot

"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

-Samuel Butler

"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us.

-Robert Lewis Stevenson

It started out with a rabbit, or rather Julie's request for one. Eric was not entirely against it, but Tami steamrolled over him.

"We are not getting a rabbit; it'll chew the house to pieces."

"What are you, it's gonna be in its cage all the time, Julie promised."

"Eric, she's seven. Do you seriously think she can keep that promise?"

"She's pretty good about taking the garbage out…most of the time."

"Most of the time isn't good enough when it comes to a having a pet, let alone having a seven year old be in charge of taking care of it. We both know she'll take it out of its cage and be holding it, and something will startle it and it'll scratch or nip her and she'll yell which will scare it even more and drop it and it'll be off to the races and end up hiding behind her dresser or getting out of her room and hiding behind the bookcase in the living room or under the sofa, or somewhere. Which means turning the house upside down trying to find it and coax it out of wherever it is and getting it back in the cage. And then there's the chewing. It'll chew the baseboards to pieces."

"What? They don-"

"Yes they do. They have to keep chewing or their teeth will grow into their mouth or out of their mouth and they'll starve to death. And let's be honest, if it does get out, Julie and I are gonna be the ones who end up dealing with it, 'cause you're at practice and meetings until 7 or 8 o'clock every night."

"Well, that's not fair, it's part of my job to be at practice and meetings and you could call me and…" Eric's voice trailed off as he thought it through.

"Oh, so if this rabbit that we are NOT getting did get loose and was holed up behind the bookcase, I can call you up at practice and you'd be able to come home and help? You'd just say to coach Ginley, 'Sorry coach, I have to go home and catch my daughter's bunny. Well Tami say's it's behind the bookcase and we don't want it to get smushed.'" Tami frowned as she looked at Eric, but her eyes had a playful glitter.

Eric sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Okay, but we have to decide what we're going to tell her and we have to tell her together so that if I tell her, she can't go running to you saying how awful and mean I am. We both have to be the bad man on this one."