2.21.2008

Puppies Are Sooo Cute...

...when they're small!

When we first got the puppies they were so cute and itty-bitty...but now they're frankly getting to be a BIG hassle. I really hate to say that as I'm an animal lover but Honey and I had talked for a couple of years now about not being tempted into getting any new pets. We did really good until last month when a friend of ours offered one of their puppies for free.

Some background:
Mr. Smarty Pants has wanted a puppy for quite some time now and has been very specific about what kind he wants. When he was 2 years old he had a pretty bad fall and I got him a stuffed chocolate lab toy as a comfort gift after leaving the ER. He named him Brownie and it has been his favorite "buddy" ever since. He's always said that someday he wants a real "Brownie". We had two(very old I might add) Pomeranians, rented a house with no backyard, and we knew we would be having more babies in the future and felt it wouldn't be a good idea to get a puppy any time soon. I also thought he should be older and more responsible before taking on a pet of his own.
Ok, so fast forward to the present. We have our own home(our first) which we moved into a little over 2 years ago, both poms have passed away, the babies are now toddlers and we're being offered a chocolate lab for free by a friend. How could we say no?

What was NOT given much thought to in this decision:
Cost. Training. Mr. Smarty Pants is really not an outdoorsy-type and has other "issues"(I'll save that for another post) that might make taking care of a dog not a good idea right now. Puppies pee in the house!!! This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine! The Poms lived for 16 & 18 years and peed all the time in our rental houses, especially as they got older. I cut baby diapers for the dogs to wear. Seriously! Guess who always had to clean any messes? Ummm yah, that would be me! Sooooo, I'm taking care of a house that frankly is too big for just little ole me to keep up with, twin toddlers entering the "Terrible Two's" stage, a hyper 6 1/2 year old with behavioral issues, and now I'm supposed to take care of, train, feed, clean up after, give attention to, a puppy! On top of that when we go to see these "conspiracies against otherwise sane adults"...um...I mean puppies, we end up getting 2!! What?? Honestly, I have NO idea how that happened. I think my brain got left behind at the house. I really do love animals, especially baby animals. *violin strings in the background* Besides, if you place any type of temptation in front of me...let's just say the results are usually predictable. My family is completely no help to me whatsoever in these matters. Normally they encourage bad behavior. I don't buy soda, cookies, cake, ice cream, etc, when I do the grocery shopping. Honey inevitably brings something "bad" into the house when he does the shopping and if it's in the house I'm completely and utterly defenseless. *sigh*

Soooo Honey drags me and all three kiddos out to see these adorable "temptations" and then everybody gangs up on me. "Awwww, these two are sooo cute together" (We're told the smallest ones, brother and sister, are the runts of the group and bonded with each other as the others picked on them.) "I don't think they should be parted"..."Aww couldn't we get them both?" so I say(drumroll please), "OK!"
Brain? Braaaaiiin?? Where are you??????

I'll admit at first everything went great and Mr. Smarty Pants loved playing with the puppies. They were adorable and cuddled up with us and were quiet and SMALL. Now, they're getting big, chewing on everything, barking and whining all the time and Mr. Smarty Pants has lost pretty much all interest in playing with them, let alone taking care of them. It doesn't help that the girls are kind of scared of them. Especially Sugar since there was a little biting incident the first day we brought them home.




I have no time to train them or give them much attention and of course no one else is training them or taking care of them. Our backyard is wayyyy too small for 2 large untrained dogs, who like to pee on the cement patio instead of the grass, oh and in the house too if we let them in(why do I always get the pee dogs??) and now the girls can't play outside because the puppies jump up and knock them over and generally terrorize them. These dogs are not even full grown yet. I'm afraid for my patio furniture. Did I mention that they are big on chewing things?

So in the spirit of nostalgia I thought I would post some pics of the puppies the first day we got them.

Ginger and Brownie


I know I'll eventually look back on all of this and laugh and the puppies will probably turn out to be exceptionally good dogs but right now?...I'm kinda losin my mind! :oP

Have a great weekend!