Maddie, "my" dog

This post is mostly for laughs and to remind me of the truth when my boys try to suck me in… but before we go there, let’s start from the top.

When my brother was in elementary school, him and his good friend Cadie found puppies and rescued them… this included bringing them into our home and eventually they each adopted one. My brother named his Maddie and she has been apart of our family ever since. But from the beginning we have had a love/ hate relationship—I’ve hated her smell, fur, and licking, and so she had loved to rub on me, lick me, and drop her hair all over my life.

So fast forward a bit… Maddie grows up and lives in our home as our family pet but I manage to sneak off to college before long. Then my parents move to Virginia and back and then to Indiana and Maddie moves too… but after life in the condo in the city gets old, my Dad sends her to college with Eli. Maddie loved college, as did Eli, but you can only stretch a 4 year degree for so long, so they eventually made Eli and Maddie graduate and move away from Athens. This included moving into my house. That’s right, Maddie, the dog that has taunted me for years became part of my home. BUT get this… Eli moved out- into Atlanta with my parents so he can start law school- BUT that dog stayed here.

You read the right.

Maddie is now our dog. This is because their apartment doesn’t welcome dogs of her size, and my hubs loves dogs and couldn’t turn her away, and offered to take her in. Or that’s how it started… but for the last several months, I’ve been the one in charge of feeding her, getting her water, letting her in and out all day long on her every whim, and now as she gets old and has health problems, I have scrubbed her diarrhea and given her meds 3 times a day for 2 weeks which includes me buying donuts just for her to reward her for taking her pills like a good girl. So let me re-phrase that-- Maddie is now my dog. 

Seriously?

She has also woven her way into my heart enough that she spends a good part of her day inside my house on my rugs, usually at my feet, while I fold laundry or work on my computer.

I still hate dog hair-especially her kind, and I still hate licks, and yet this is all a true, on-going story. I’m beginning to feel duped….

But as she gets older, I keep hearing things said like “Pretty soon, we’ll need another dog…” and “Jack needs a dog” and “Dogs are great protection” and “all boys need to grow up with puppies” and “Kids who grow up around dogs are actually healthier” among other crazy statements. So let me say it here before I get duped again:

Lauren, your children and your husband are very cute and will do a great job convincing you of their need for a dog BUT don’t do it. Don’t give in. It will become your dog. They will not take care of it, because “mom will do it.” It will be like another child, there will be hair and licking and chores, and it’s just not a responsibility you want to take on. Don’t you dare fall for it Lauren. No dogs. NO DOGS! Sincerely, Lauren