Our two hairy children have given us a lot of joy from the time we adopted them. Ever since the bipedal ones arrived, the fun with our four-legged friends has been few and far between. Steph and I hardly get one on one time with either dog (unless bath time counts.) There’s only so many hours in the day, and in order to tickle everyone’s fancy, we must often plan group activities.
The few kid and dog friendly places we frequent are pet cemeteries, garbage dumps, random vet office lobbies, and Target. (When I put fake mustaches and service dog jackets on the pooches, we walk right in through the front doors. In case anyone asks, my knee jerk response is “My dogs relieve themselves during my panic attacks.” When I say it quickly and make strong eye contact, the listener only hears the words ‘relieve’ and ‘panic attacks’. Works every time!)
I’ve been scouring the earth for something a little more utopian (and clean), such as a fenced-in park where both kids and dogs can frolic, where pee transforms into grape juice, where poop turns into pudding pops (by the way, look out for an awesome pudding pop recipe from us soon!), and every child scream or dog bark causes peanut butter cups to rain down from the clouds. (Willy Wonka, are you reading this?!) To this day (at least from my Google searches), such playground does not exist. And it’s tiring to try to handle two dogs and two kids everywhere I go. So sometimes I have to leave a couple of individuals behind. And when I say couple, it’s the dogs. Because if I left the kids at home alone, I’d be behind bars meeting my new cellmate/boyfriend for the next 10 years.
With the kids getting more active, the spots we visit don’t allow dogs. So I’m caught expanding my children’s environment, and contracting my dogs’. The pups get confined to the house and we go to the aquarium, or the like. The dogs don’t get totally neglected, but they can end up with no more than 30 minutes of real interaction with us in a given day. The thought has crossed my mind about selling the dogs to the gypsies, but only in anger. Also, I’ve thought about putting Duncan and Frodo on eBay to see what each would fetch on the open market, but the numbers may look more red than black. Besides, 99% of the time, I love our pups. I just wish I had more time to spend with them. (Though if they were on Facebook, I’d probably interact with them quite a bit more. I kid.) What makes me feel even worse is that my Duncan gives me the most pathetic, floppy-eared, droopy-lipped, sad puppy dog face. At times, I can feel his eyes burning into the back of my head, trying to will me to come over and scratch his belly…or even just to look in his general direction.
Kids require a lot of time, patience, and love. But so do my dogs. I’m pretty sure that if we would have had Smush and Worm first, dogs wouldn’t have even been considered. But, our life didn’t work out that way and before kids, Steph and I gave two rescued dogs a loving home and we planned to do so until death do us part. And for all the unconditional love that our pets give us, we deserve to give back just as much. They’ve never leave our side (unless it is to chase bunnies). They’re loyal and deserving of love, even when they barf on the carpet over the excitement of seeing us after we’ve returned from a long trip. Yet, I don’t feel like I give them the same in return (the love, not the barf.) So, I’m going to make a point to do more with my furry loved ones. Even though my posts have slowed down after Smush was born, they may have to take a back seat to spending time with my dogs (especially Duncan). The little spare time that I have after the kids are in bed and mother and father are finally fed, may have to be spent trying to become dog’s best friend. Woof!
Duncan – “I’m in Heaven! Everything Smells Like Strawberry Frosting!!!” Frodo -“*SMACK* Do All Weimeraners Have A Screw Loose?”
Me vs. Gavin 