Re: Your Questions (about the D-O-G)

Dear Cousin Laura,

Your comment made me laugh. I'm going out on a limb by telling you that, because I'm still not completely sure you were trying to be funny. Were you seriously "seriously offended"?... Let me apologize and assure you that we didn't remember the connection with your newborn son at the time the name was suggested. In fact, I don't think it hit me until I was writing about it (in the comments). Sorry I'm so dense, and sorry for any negative association I may have introduced to your mind, but please be assured that I really like the name. I do realize that we gave our dog a human name; it's not like you named your son Fido or Spot. So let it be known. Anyway, you may or may not recall that when I was polling about names for Olivia, I posted Abby as an option, but my mom said "No Way!" because that was your family's dog.

Having said all that, I'm happy and willing to change my dog's name for your sake. In fact, I've thought of other names that I might like better. My husband and kids might continue to call him Jack, but I might start calling him Jasper or Tickle. (Tickle, because I love Junie B.)


Dear Gerb (and other Inquiring Minds who want to know),

Yes. I. Am. Crazy. Let me tell you how we came to have a dog.

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Rebecca. She was about 5 or 6 years old. She really wanted a puppy. So did her siblings. Her parents considered the possibility. They took Rebecca and her siblings to see a cute litter of puppies. They bought a dog house. They got all ready. And then they went back to pick up their puppy, and something went terribly wrong. No puppy came home. The dog house disappeared.

(Are you crying yet?)

Years passed. Little Rebecca had a couple of incidents with scary dogs. She developed a fear of dogs that became somewhat paralyzing. But she still liked puppies. When Rebecca was 14 years old, her parents consented, once again, to get a family dog. They all went to see the puppies. They were cute. This time, a puppy did come home. He was cute for about 3 days. Then he started doubling in size daily, and also in energy, and he liked to chew on things (including ankles). After a couple of months, Rebecca and the rest of her family decided that they were not dog people. They found a nice home for that puppy, with an older couple who had just lost their beloved pet. Rebecca's puppy went home with this nice couple and promptly bit the hand that now fed him, which required several stitches to heal.

True story. (P.S. It's about me.)

By the time I got married, Doug and I happily agreed that we had no need or desire for pets.

Then we had children.

And those children seemed to be born with a crazy love of animals.

For more than 10 years, we have engaged in the Great Pet Debate. We tried goldfish--no fun, messy bowls, what's the point? We tried a cat--which nearly drove me to the asylum. After one weekend with that creature, it went back to the shelter and to its inevitable doom.
Doug tried birds. He didn't even ask my opinion before he pulled that one. Three unfortunate m birds later, the cage finally found a new home.

Once again, this family had sworn off pets.

But the pleading, begging, campaigning, and praying of the children was incessant.

I stood firm. "If you want a pet, you can wait until you have your own house, and then you can get whatever you want." "Just think of Grandma's pets as your pets." "Play with the neighbors' pets. That's fun, right?"

More pleading. More bargaining. More cajoling. Researching and arming themselves with information.

"I do not want a dog in the house, and our back yard is too small/not fenced/too rainy."

The begging continued.

Then, we moved. And Doug and I knew that we were losing our footing. At least, we lost some of our excuses. We now have a fenced backyard that is big enough for a dog to play in. We have an extra garage where the dog can stay at night or in bad weather. We've seen that the animal love which our children have doesn't seem to fade. We watched Emily spend Spring Break playing with and "training" Grandma's dog. We saw the girls brainstorm and create and deliver flyers around the neighborhood, offering their pet-sitting services.

One evening, I came home from running some errands, and the girls enthusiastically told me that Doug had made a deal with them: something about doing really well in school and earning the privilege of owning a dog.

We were caving. Doug and I had come to believe that we would get a dog for our kids, maybe next summer. I did not want to go through the puppy stage, however. They are the cutest kind of dogs, but way too much work.

Half a block from Doug's office is the local animal shelter. The girls started visiting the shelter with Doug, on occasion. I had no desire to visit that place. The smells? The germs? Ew!

Then one Saturday, Doug and I got up early and went to the temple. On our way home, I told Doug, "Hey, today is seven-eleven." (the date) And he joked, "Good things are waiting for you?" (like the jingle). And then he got pulled over for speeding. But that's another story.

We came home and the girls wanted Doug to take them to the shelter. It turned out that everyone was going, except me. They invited me to come, and I agreed, because after all, Saturday is a good day to be together as a family. The shelter was surprisingly clean. Yes, there were smells, but it was much more inviting than the shelter where we got that dumb cat, years ago.

The girls looked at the noisy dogs in the cages, and I talked to the shelter employees. They told me about a certain dog that had just become available for adoption, and how he was everyone's favorite. We met Jack (who at the time was nameless).

We took him on a leash outside. Jack seemed very sweet. He didn't scare me, and that was a big deal. He wasn't mangy. He didn't bark. He didn't mind when Olivia smacked his nose. That was a really big deal.

As we walked him around the parking lot, we met a man who was about to leave the shelter. (Turns out he was looking for a lost cat.) He was getting into his car, when he saw Jack. This man stopped, came over to us, and asked if we were adopting that dog. We told him we were thinking about it. He went on about how Jack's breed is so obedient, so loyal, so fun with kids, so smart. He was a really friendly guy,and I trusted him. For some unexplainable reason, I trusted Jack.

While the girls played with Jack inside the shelter, Doug and I watched them through the window and talked it over. I could tell he was going for it. It all depended on me.

Frankly, I was tired of fighting the issue. And we agreed that we thought our kids would do well to have a chance with a pet of their own. I knew I would never get to the point of wanting to own a dog. But I wanted my kids to have that life experience. And I guessed I was as ready as I ever would be.

So, we wrote a check, signed the papers, and left with Jack in the back of the van with us.

Surprise! We got a dog.

And, surprise! I don't mind him all that much...So far. :)