Our four-legged children. We love our dogs. They have lost a lot of privileges since Kai came along, but we do love them.
We adopted Sadie in the Spring of 2005. I remember that night well. She was so cute and so little and we fell in LOVE with her. We were so busy playing with her and making sure she had everything she needed that we forgot to eat dinner! I'm sure there were trying times with teaching her what NOT to chew on and where it was OK to use the bathroom, but looking back on it, I think she caught on pretty quickly. She would regress to the chewing over the years when left alone for too long though. She was a loud mouth at night for awhile too. She did not want to be left alone and I remember hoping she did not howl like that all day while we were at work. Sadie was the main reason I can remember that we began looking to move from our condo. We needed somewhere with a yard and a fence where we could let her outside to roam and take care of business on her own. She was the princess. Most nights she slept in the bed with us. If not, she was probably on the couch with her head on a pillow. Sadie has been a pretty laid back dog and there are many days I wish we had allowed her to stay an only-dog...
We moved in the Spring of 2006 into our current house and a couple of months later decided Sadie needed a companion. What on earth were we thinking? Well, Michael had been on the Humane Society's website and spotted this precious little white dog with brown patches named Lilly. I remember thinking, this is nuts! But we went and visited with her and there was NO WAY we were going to leave her behind. She was a snuggler and seemed to like us right away as well. Sadie and Lilly were buds from the get go. Lilly never once went potty in the house b/c she picked up on what Sadie did and they were able to go out so often without us having to put on leashes and brave whatever weather was occurring outside. (Side Note: Both of them always hated the rain and would refuse to go out the door if there were drops falling.) They were good dogs. Neither of them ever barked unless the doorbell rang. Two dogs meant twice as much dirt and dog hair all over our little house. (They both shed something awful.) We were getting new couches and decided they would be off limits to our furry friends. They got bigger and there was not room for them the sleep in the bed with us. They would get into mischief together, so we started putting them in crates when we left the house. Lilly has always been the drama queen of the two. She has had more random injuries that I could have imagined and she is to this day quite skittish for whatever reason. She even has her "security blanket" which is whatever toy is nearby that she can hold in her mouth. And she will not let it go for anything.
After Kai was born, they both were very interested in him and always wanted to check him out. We began keeping them more and more contained to avoid having them in Kai's face and also trying to keep certain areas of the house clean enough for a baby to lay on a blanket on the floor or scoot around. And soon, they were always behind a gate in one room of the house. We still loved them, but had less time to fool with them and less desire to be close to them b/c dogs are stinky and dirty. (That just didn't seem to matter as much before a baby.) I'm not sure what changed in them but a year or so ago I guess they began to habitually eat nasty stuff in the yard which they would then come inside and throw up. After a long spell of regular vomit, and a desire to put our house on the market, we determined it was best to make them outside dogs.
To this point, they loved to go outside, but as soon as you let them out, they were already back at the door ready to come back in. I was skeptical about how this transition was going to go. Michael built the dog house so they would have a place to shelter from the weather. And out they went. Sadie would just stand at the back door and stare in at us. We put items in front of the door so she couldn't see us and that began to work. Now they both do great outside (although they do bark a lot more)! Lilly prefers it I think. Sadie will still make her way inside if you leave the door open, but she comes back out willingly.
Having dogs taught us a lot about caring for a child. I know they are VERY different, but I still think it was good preparation for us. They are good dogs. Kai has always enjoyed them. And they are part of the family. (And are much easier to love now that we don't have to clean up their messes all the time!) I dread the day that we lose one of them, but know that we have had some great memories with them in the time they have been in our lives!
(You can tell how "neglected" they have been since Kai's arrival due to the lack of pictures available for me to post with this!)
No comments:
Post a Comment