Love is the overarching theme within Mali’s “How Falling in Love is like Owning a Dog.” However, the author breaks down the abstract concept of romantic love into three categories, the first of which is love as an unpredictable force.

From the onset of the poem, Mali characterizes love as a paradox. His consistent use of contradiction exposes how even when one prepares for love, one could never fully anticipate the impact it will have on one’s life. In Stanza 1, Mali opens with a strong statement, saying, “First of all” (Line 1) in a tone of debate. Mali describes love as a “big responsibility” (Line 1), and yet, not two lines later, Mali walks this statement back, contending, “On the other hand” (Line 4), one does not need to consider love too thoroughly before jumping into it after all. For Mali, there is no perfect timing for meeting the love of one’s life, but rather, because of its unpredictability, love is at its best and sweetest when it “[l]eaves you little surprises” (Line 22) and “makes you meet people […] who have nothing in common but love” (Lines 34-35).