Pet Custody

One of the happiest, most exciting days of my life was my thirtieth birthday. That was the day I became a mother. Granted, I was the mother of a twelve-week-old furry ball of puppy named Jackson, but I was a mom nonetheless. My life was about to drastically change, for the better.

Jackson was a birthday gift from my ex-husband during a period when our marriage was going through some rough spots, to say the least. Though we never said it out loud, we—like many couples before us—probably thought that a new addition to our family would take the focus off our problems and eventually help us move past them. Sure, other couples opt for children where we chose a dog, but to us, Jackson was our child. We loved him and spoiled him. We bought him Christmas gifts and had birthday parties for him. We enrolled him in doggie day care to make sure he was getting enough canine interaction. We vigorously protested when he was kicked out of his dog walking group for disobedience. He was an integral and beloved member of our family.

But eventually, like most of those other couples that had come before us, we couldn’t ignore the problems at hand. We made the decision to separate and ultimately divorce.

During our separation, we each had plenty of time to stake our claims on the items we wanted. Furniture, china, appliances, bedding…those were the easy decisions. The topic we both avoided like the plague was who would get Jackson. Early on, I assumed I would take him because he was a gift to me. But as the days and months wore on, I noticed that wherever my ex-husband went, Jackson followed. Although Jackson seemed to love both of us, it was clear that he thought of my ex as the “fun” parent, the one who took him on long, rambling walks, gave him forbidden human food, let him sleep in the bed and threw his ball tirelessly.

While I did my share of walking, ball-throwing, and loving, I was also responsible for the majority of disciplining. I applied his flea medication monthly (which he hated), I fed him healthy dog treats, I bathed him, I made him wear his leash went we went on walks. I was the parental buzz-kill.