In our home, we have two basset hounds, a three year old stray named Sweet Pea and an 18 month old named Barnabus Wadley, aka Barney. We’ve had Barney since he was about 8 weeks old. Sweet Pea entered our lives about two months ago as a stray. We found her original owners who were ready to send her to the pound. We couldn’t let that happen, so she became a part of our family.
Before last year, our family had never had pets. We saw no use for them. Why would you want an animal in your house? You have to feed it, bathe it, walk it, clean up after it, your house smells like dogs constantly, there’s hair everywhere, and not to mention the noises they make at all the wrong moments.
Last year, however, when I our children were five, four, and three, we realized something. Our kids were scared of dogs. They were terrified of all animals really. My sister had a cat, and if it walked into the room, the kids would scream bloody murder. “AHHHHHHH! What is that!! Get it away!!” Literally every time a four legged creature would approach them, the kids would scream as if there were no tomorrow. I had a stranger one time in a gardening center chastise me because my kids cried when his Irish wolfhound approached them to be petted and they flipped out. (It was HUGE dog, though!)
We realized it was a problem. It was not just the big ones they were frightened of. It was the small ones. My oldest wouldn’t hold a gerbil at school because she was afraid of it. Why? Her reasoning was that it had fur.
My husband and I discussed it for weeks. We looked at all the cons of having a dog that I listed above. And then we listed the pro: our children needed it.
We researched dog breeds and talked and looked and hunted for just the right one. I put a note out on our local free cycle group asking if anyone had a basset they wanted to get rid of, preferably a puppy. It happened that a local man had a mom dog that was getting ready to give birth. He said we could have the pick of the litter, and that when the pup was weaned he would be ours, for free!
It was go. We had about 9 weeks to talk it up to the kids. To tell them all about dogs and how much fun they were and how much we would love whatever puppy we brought home. We introduced them to all the dog paraphernalia: the bowls, the leashes, the dog food, and the crates. The kids were totally ready when it was time to bring Barney home. At first, everyone was a bit hesitant. It took a few days, but within a week, all was well with the kids and the puppy. My son, 4 at the time, almost loved the dog too much. He wanted to carry him, put his Batman costumes on him, and check to make sure his tail was wag-gable.
It was a good thing.
Barney is quiet, reserved, likes to lie in the sun on the deck or in his corner in the house. He was housetrained almost from the beginning. “What a great addition!” my husband and I would remark to one another.
And so a year passed with our Barney and our 3 children. One summer day in July, a dog showed up on our deck. A neighbor passing by stopped to tell me that our Basset was off his leash wandering around. Well, Barney was sleeping soundly under my desk at the time.
I opened the door to look for the dog, and in she came. She bounded around the kitchen table, up the back stairs, down the hallway and down the front stairs, just like she lived here and had been doing it for years. She was warm, friendly, drolly, and the kids immediately loved her.
We searched the neighborhood and eventually found her owners. They had put a rope around her neck and tied the other end to a tree. They had supplied her with a small bowl of water that had long dried up. She was mostly an outside dog that they were tired of and were getting ready to take back to the pound. Our pound has a policy that after an animal is returned more than twice, on the third surrender for adoption, the dog is given 5 days and then is put down.
We could not let that happen to this sweet dog!
So we adopted Sweet Pea. She came in to our home and immediately made it her own. She is a groaning, sniffing, always drooling, makes my house smell like dog bundle of fur. A common place to find Sweet Pea is curled up on top of the dirty laundry pile in the laundry room. If the clothes are in a basket, she’ll dump the basket over and spread them out to make herself at home. Never mind the $75 5 foot by 4 foot dog pillow in the living room; she’d rather make her bed on smelly stuff.
I am not a dog person. I never have been. I grew up with dogs in our family, but they were always someone else’s property. Not mine. I don’t like the smell. I don’t like the fur. I don’t like cleaning up vomit and urine accidents from my carpets. I don’t like the battle with fleas we’ve had this summer. I don’t like vet bills or chasing my dog through the neighborhood when one or the other has escaped the tie-out. I don’t like the drool. The constant vacuuming that takes place. I don’t like the fact that my suede couches now have patches of drool stains that won’t come clean short of having them professionally cleaned.
But I do love them for one reason alone: my three children adore them. They wrestle with the dogs. The three year old child lies down on the three year old basset’s tummy and talks to her like the dog is her best friend, whispering secrets into that dog’s long ears that will never be repeated.
My son loves them because they like to be as rough as he does. At five, my son’s whole world is being a super hero, fighting bad guys and running around like his butt’s on fire. The dogs love it. They chase after him for awhile, then the trails are reversed and my son chases after them.
These animals have taken the fear of non-human living things away from my children. It used to be that the sight of a squirrel on one of our walks would paralyze them, keeping them in one spot on the side walk until the squirrel was safely out of view. Now, wildlife in general is something to be studied and talked about on our walks, not avoided. Dogs and cats are no longer a frightening mystery to my children. It’s just another dog to them. And that is fantastic.
So while my children are young, growing up with dogs, this mom can put up with the extra work. In years to come, there will be plenty of time for my husband and me to have a pet-free house. Right now, it’s all about my children and what’s best for them. Having dogs is what’s best for them. What’s best for me can wait.