I am fairly certain my husband and I have lost our minds. My husband would probably say it is more me than him and sadly, he is probably right. When we got married 24 years ago, each of us came with kids already and when we combined the two families, we ended up with five boys. Silly us; we tried for a little girl and got another boy. That was it for me and we had six boys. All were close in age and our home was always loud, boisterous and never, ever dull.
They are all grown and gone now, with homes and lives of their own. One would think that our lives would be quiet and we would be free to come and go as we pleased. Not so. Somehow, as each child left, they were replaced by a furry kid. We are at five now, just one more and we will have replaced each boy with a dog or cat. What were we thinking? Or more precisely, what was I thinking?
The cats, of which we have two, are fine. No problem at all. Feed them once a day, take care of the litter box every two days and make sure they have a fresh water supply and they are good to go. The dogs, however, are just as needy as a herd of three year olds. We can’t go off for a weekend alone because of the dogs. Late nights out? Ha!! We have to rush home to let the dogs out to do their business. There are dog toys scattered all over what I once thought would be a finally clean home. They bring in mud and leaves from outside and my carpet needs vacuumed at least once a day. More often if they are shedding.
I think I completely lost it when I decided I had to have a Yorkie. My mind was on vacation that day, for sure. She has destroyed shoes, socks, any piece of paper that is within her reach, and I swear she is half cat with the way she climbs all over things. She is also way too smart for her own good. How a smart, little brain resides in a skull the size of my palm I do not understand, but she sure uses every bit of it. We have a German Shepherd and a Border Collie/Rottweiler mix and the Yorkie rules. When I am scolding one of the other dogs for something they have done, she is right there, scolding along with me. It is really hard to keep a straight face when you have a Yorkie barking along with you.
So why do we have them? Why not? I don’t work outside the home anymore and they provide so much companionship. I have fibromyalgia and on days when I am hurting too badly to get out of bed, I am surrounded by furry kids. Cats on one side, and dogs on the other. They all seem to sense it, too, when I am having a bad day. They love unconditionally. They don’t care if I haven’t taken a bath or brushed my hair. They still adore me. Hard to find that in a human, except for my husband.
So we have given up a little freedom in return for adoration, hair and slobber everywhere and non-stop little animals under foot. If we do get desperate, we can always farm them out on our family members and get away for a while, but still, we worry about them when we’re gone, so what’s the point? As much as we gripe about the hair and the dirt and the chewed up whatever, I know we would miss them if they weren’t here.
As I write this, I have the Yorkie terror lying by my side trying to nap. She is only 6 months old, God help us. We are in for a lot of years of fun and laughter with this one. And the word terror was not a typo, people. I meant that in every sense of the word.
