My daughter has been bugging us to get a new puppy because her friend got a new puppy. She promises to feed and care for the pup and I believe her. And therein lies the problem.
As soon as the dog grows up it would be added to my “to do” list like all our present pets are. I am a dog (and cat) lover, and I love the two wonderful animals we have now. While I love a cute furry little puppy, it’s not all about looks with me. It’s a relationship. So much so, that when I had a mural of our family scenes painted on our living room wall, our animals are there with us.
Here is our family’s first dog, Newly. Her whole name was “Newlywed” because we got her back then. She lived until she was 17 and I won’t tell you the sad details of her passing but let’s just say she didn’t see very well and my husband has a lot of guilt. To this day, her ashes are on his desk. I can still her her proud dog steps prancing our way to greet us whenever we returned home.
When my last child boarded the bus for full-day kindergarten, I was so lonely that I drove directly to the Save-A-Pet shelter and adopted Woody, shown in our mural waiting for the kids to get off the school bus as he did (and still does) every day. 
My son has the same bond I do with Woody. I will often see him outside sitting next to the dog, petting and sharing some secret talk with him. The girls walk by him and give him a fleeting greeting, rarely stopping to pet or throw him a bone. Woody and I both have their number.
Luckily, Woody knows that I am a one-dog woman and I too, have a bark and a bite.
“The more I see of man, the more I like dogs.” ~ Mme. de Stael
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Karen Vogel // Nov 11, 2007 at 4:45 pm
You mean, you didn’t say, “If your friend was jumping off a bridge….”?
2 Mary // Nov 11, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Not quite. We live really close to Niagara Falls so the local version of this is “If everyone was jumping over the Falls…”
3 Rebecca // Nov 12, 2007 at 2:15 am
Maybe if she gets one of those small dogs (not the dress up & put them in your purse kind) but just a small one that always looks like a puppy she’ll take care of it longer than one that grows up. ?
4 Paula // Nov 12, 2007 at 11:38 am
I hear ya. I gave in and gave my daughter the rabbit, and guess who’s cleaning the cage every other day? Now she’s begging for a cat.
5 Angelawd // Nov 12, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Great paintings of your dogs! My mom always said if you get one dog you should get two. They’re pack animals, you know. They actually are less work that way.
6 My Personal Blog » Mom’s Best Friend // Nov 14, 2007 at 1:25 am
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptMom’s Best Friend Posted by Mary on 11 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: Kids, Pet Peeves, Moms My daughter has been bugging us to get a new puppy because her friend got a new puppy. She promises to feed and care for the pup and I believe her. And therein lies the problem. As soon as the dog grows up it would be added to my “to do†list like all our present pets are. I am a dog (and cat) lover, and I love the two wonderful animals we have now. While I love a cute furry little puppy, it’s not all about l [...]
7 Peter McCartney // Nov 15, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Gidday! Our children are now adults and have recently moved out of home. It’s all too quite at home now with just the two of us. The eldest has left his german shepherd with us to look after. Now everytime I look at the dog I think of my kids. Aren’t dogs just great! Regards Peter – Sydney Australia.
8 susiej // Nov 19, 2007 at 8:19 pm
This is a hot topic in our house. We lost our dog two years ago — and it’s left a gapping hole in my kid’s hearts. We babysat the school bunny a couple of weeks ago, and they were all over the moon. However, the bunny died — in our house!!! Turns out she was an old bunny, and it was just her time.
Oh geesh, the nightmare. Those, are beautiful paintings of your dogs.