Have you ever looked at your two little girls (10- and five-years-old) and seen the future flash past in a minute to when they are adults and leaving home?Well, funny story: I was looking at my 10-year-old, who is processing hormones at the rate of a high-speed train at the moment, and had a bit of a freak-out. She is almost grown, almost gone! What will I do without my baby?
Meet Bear.
This is what happens when a mother’s (especially this mother’s) premenopausal hormones meet the reality of time and space and the yawning gap that can no longer be filled with a baby. Instead, you must find something to make you feel like you have purpose…I found an eight-pound-tail-wagging bundle of teeth, forehead wrinkles, and white-tipped paws. The girls cried tears of sheer joy upon receiving their Christmas puppy, and I felt that whole fill a little bit, and my sadness at the lack of a third little bundle of joy became less…something. Now, instead of diapers and milk spurting from over-full mammary glands, I have pee on every flat surface of the house and some suspicious tooth marks on my bobbin-lace bobbins.
I feel like the girls now have a chance to make memories of a dog in their childhood before my eldest hits the teenage phase, when she couldn’t care less about those experiences. For now, they are learning just how insistent a puppy can be when they want to play! They are learning why we do not leave shoes and toys on the floor within reach of chewing. Also, they are learning that the sweetest snuggles are definitely from the sleepy puppy.
So, though a puppy is not always the right decision for a busy family, for this family, I am hoping that our puppy has come at just the right time. Just the right moment when we can give him a home full of love, snuggles, and things to chew into little bits of confetti.
