[Dailydrool] Rude dog comments...

[njmedic702 at aol.com]

Brenda,
Boy, did you hit the nail on the head with your post about the comments people, family included, make regarding our Basset crew.  Our kids grew up with animals; dogs of all breeds, kitties hermit crabs, gerbils, etc.  They know that with the love and joy of owning a pet come messes, vet bills worries and tears when they die on their own or the difficult decision to send them to the Bridge has to be made.  

Example: when our son was sixteen he decided that Buffy, our little Pomeranian was not a "real dog" and begged us to let him adopt another, larger one.  We made a trek to North Shore Animal League in Long Island where he fell in love with a sweet dobie/sheppard mix  who they said would grow up to be "medium-sized," who he named Peyton.  "I'll train her, feed her, walk her...etc."  You know how that story ends - we parents wound up shouldering a good deal of said responsibility instead.  I'll give him this - he did spend time training her and she was a good-natured, well behaved girl until her death at 12 years old. Three years after her got her, however, he moved into an apartment of his own which did not allow animals.  We weren't asked if we would assume full responsibility for her, we just did.  Two apartments later he moved into a shared house which allowed pets and he re-claimed her.  She lived with him for about two years until he enlisted suddenly in the Air Force.  Back she came to us.  She was getting older, had begun to get hard-of-hearing and licked incessantly at a lick granuloma on one of her forelegs.  We loved her, though, and she became OUR baby again until the morning when my husband found her in the back yard where, without any warning, she had simply laid down and died at the age of 12.  We were devastated.  DS was in boot camp so it was up to us to deal with everything.

Now, said son and both daughters have issues with our hounds.  "Why do you have to have so many? Or, "How can you deal with all the dog hair and the mess?"  Open letter to our grown kids:  Hello?  Have you forgotten how badly all of you, at one time or another, wanted a puppy...or a kitten...or a gerbil, etc.?  Who do you think did all of the work, cleaned up most of the mess, paid the vet bills for YOUR pets all those years?  You guys grew up and left.  Our hounds needed homes and love and we needed the unconditional love, snuggly companionship and laughter they provide.  YOU don't live here anymore!  THEY do.  So if WE don't mind wiping up the occasional puddle, vacuuming up the endless clumps of dog hair, the worry when they are sick or miss the money we spend to keep them healthy and well-fed, why on earth should YOU?  Get over yourselves.  If you don't like sharing our house with our hounds when you come to visit, there's some nice hotels down the road.  

Love, Mom and Dad

Sandi, Mamaslave to the NJ4
Daisy, Delilah, Dozer and Dudley

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.dailydrool.org/pipermail/dailydrool-dailydrool.org/attachments/20110104/56574633/attachment.htm>