Totally OK with being a ridiculous dog-parent

Being a childless couple in our mid-forties, we are an easy target.  Proclaim our besotted-ness with Taco to be the obsessive fulfillment of unsatisfied parental instinct, and most would presume you've got a prima facie case.  But I reckon it's barking up the wrong playpen.  I've been dog-obsessed my whole adult life, and baby-obsessed...well, never.  Having put off being a dog-parent until I felt my life stable enough to have the dog relationship I want, I've been hankering a long time.  So far as I know, it's not baby substitution.  It's simple wish fulfillment. But I can't say it'd make any difference.  I am just as crazy about her either way.