Dogs
Sweetie and I celebrated the 24th anniversary of our very first date yesterday. On that night, we went to see the movie Ragtime, staring Jimmy Cagney in his last movie role. I had already sneakily gotten our first kiss out of the way the night before at an impromptu cast party for the musical Grease that we were both in. Sweetie, because of here talent and fine singing voice was the lead, Sandra Dee, and I was Teen Angel and pit orchestra guitarist.
Afterwards I took her to my house to meet Toby, who I found out years later, she thought would be my younger brother, but he was just our decrepit English Bulldog, in the last year or two of his life. Toby was a sweet old dog who in his later years suffered from a bit of arthritis and eventually died during surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. Sweetie, who grew up with a lot of cats, had never owned a dog, and this led to a few episodes where she would decide that we should take the dog for a walk and Toby would grudgingly allow himself to be dragged down the street, only to take a sharp turn at the alley and make a beeline for his house.
When Sweetie and I got the keys to our first apartment we went out the very next day and got a cat, and for close to 19 years cats are the only pets we’ve ever had.
That is until last week when my folks brought over their terrier puppy for us to watch while they were out of town. The Older Boy has been putting the pressure on to get a dog of his own lately, and Sweetie and I thought this would give both us and him a better idea of what we’re in for.
Turns out puppies are a lot of work.
Of course I knew that going in…everyone says puppies are a lot of work, so why should this one be any different? Well, it wouldn’t, it was, and now everyone in our house’s butt is dragging. Turns out puppies wake up really early in the morning as well…
She goes back in the morning, and while it’s had moments of fun, I won’t say we’ll be sad to see her go. Well most of us won’t—I imagine that the Older Boy will miss her some, although he is clearly conflicted about weather or not he still wants a dog of his own. My gut feeling is that while he says that maybe what he really wants is a cat, once she’s gone for a day or two, he’ll get right back on the “can we get a dog NOW” bandwagon, and in the next month or two, we’ll wind up heading down to the pound to see if they’ve got a dog for us.
Afterwards I took her to my house to meet Toby, who I found out years later, she thought would be my younger brother, but he was just our decrepit English Bulldog, in the last year or two of his life. Toby was a sweet old dog who in his later years suffered from a bit of arthritis and eventually died during surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. Sweetie, who grew up with a lot of cats, had never owned a dog, and this led to a few episodes where she would decide that we should take the dog for a walk and Toby would grudgingly allow himself to be dragged down the street, only to take a sharp turn at the alley and make a beeline for his house.
When Sweetie and I got the keys to our first apartment we went out the very next day and got a cat, and for close to 19 years cats are the only pets we’ve ever had.
That is until last week when my folks brought over their terrier puppy for us to watch while they were out of town. The Older Boy has been putting the pressure on to get a dog of his own lately, and Sweetie and I thought this would give both us and him a better idea of what we’re in for.
Turns out puppies are a lot of work.
Of course I knew that going in…everyone says puppies are a lot of work, so why should this one be any different? Well, it wouldn’t, it was, and now everyone in our house’s butt is dragging. Turns out puppies wake up really early in the morning as well…
She goes back in the morning, and while it’s had moments of fun, I won’t say we’ll be sad to see her go. Well most of us won’t—I imagine that the Older Boy will miss her some, although he is clearly conflicted about weather or not he still wants a dog of his own. My gut feeling is that while he says that maybe what he really wants is a cat, once she’s gone for a day or two, he’ll get right back on the “can we get a dog NOW” bandwagon, and in the next month or two, we’ll wind up heading down to the pound to see if they’ve got a dog for us.
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