BTW is anyone else here thinking that Kim really, deep down, likes this dog a little more than she lets on?
I have the feeling she's going to be one of those people that, when something happens to Chewy, she's going to be surprisingly upset about it and realize she misses him after all! Especially if her DD has moved out of the home.
I've told you before, Kim, my mother is not a dog lover, either. For years she said she just tolerated our dogs. But in her own way, she's loved them. This is what I sort of see in you, too. (I could be wrong, idk. I only know you from posting here and can't "read" you in person, but I just have a feeling.)
Anyway, one day, it became clear that one of my dogs had to make his last trip to the vet's to be put to sleep. DH was at work, so it all fell to me. (Circumstances were unusual - he had been infirm but had a sudden issue, and our vet's was actually closed for painting but the vet told me to bring him in when I called, that she didn't want me to have to take him anywhere else, and I knew it would be his last day.) Mom was with me in the house, and watched me pick this beautiful and much loved German Shepherd up to bring him outside to the back of my Jeep. Him laying there looking up at us, in his dying condition, was one of the saddest sights ever.
(Teary and blowing my nose just remembering it now.)
I was about to shut the tailgate to leave, when my mother came running out of the house and went over to him, crying, and kissed him on his forehead, saying her last goodbye to him.
You could've knocked me over with a feather - I'd never seen her do anything like this before with any of our many dogs. Later, she tried to say she doesn't like to see any living thing in pain, or dying, and she knew how much I loved him, but I know there was more to it. She didn't have to kiss him. Today, many years later, she still talks about him and tells people what a great dog he was! Yet she will always tell people she's not a dog lover.
Pets who live with us do become like family members when we see them daily, care for and about them, feed them, take them to the doctor's, talk about them, etc. Sometimes, maybe, like it or not.
I think if you decide to get another dog some day, it will probably help to get one that you choose yourself. It sounds like your DH might like any dog you're happy with, and he'll be really happy you're happy. Lol. (This has happened in my own family with a SIL.)